The Kaiser’s and Digidestined New Enemy
by Taka ichijouji
Summary: Completed: A new enemy, a digimon, comes into the picture. Now, to stay alive, the Kaiser and the digidestined must work together. A little Kenlei.
1. Meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon, no matter how much I want to

Notes: This story takes place right after Cody gets his second digiegg and Ken has been living in the digital world for about two months. Now, to the story!!!!

The Kaiser's and Digidestined New Enemy

"Davis, slow down!" Kari called

Davis immediately lowed and started to jog back to the group. All the digidestined were enjoying the digital world, for it was a nice day with the sun shining and only a few clouds in the sky. The group had just taken down ten control spires in one day without any trouble, so they were all pretty relaxed.

"We only have a few hours left before we have to return to the real world, so lets get to that place Gabumon was talking about." Davis complained

"Davis," Yolei said testily "we won't get there for at least an hour no matter how we travel, you know we all took a vote and decided that we would enjoy the scenery here by walking, NOT RUNNING."

"Besides, it'll be good to get some exercise." TK interjected, looking pointedly at Davis "Even if it is just walking."

The digidestined then walked in silence for a few minuets taking a look around. The forest they were in had huge leafy trees and flowers. The ground vegetation was so dense it was tangled up in itself. The only reason the group was even able to walk in it was because of a small, thin path obviously created by digimon trying to get to the same destination of the digidestined.

"I wonder why the Digimon Kaiser hasn't shown up today, you'd think that destroying ten of his towers, we'd attract at least a few of his slaves?" Cody wondered out loud, thinking of the day's events.

"Maybe he was busy or maybe he's decided to surrender." Davis answered confidently.

"Shh! Don't say things like that; you might jinx it and start attacking us." TK said lightheartedly

"Oh yeah, TS?" Davis said turning around and started walking backwards "jinxes never happen. I tried to do that to my sister and it didn't woAHHH OOF!"

Davis fell backwards and landed on his back. He lay there for a moment, looking at the sky, obviously dazed.

"Davis!" Kari said running over to help him up, "Are you OK?"

"Yeah." He said shaking his head "the ground broke my fall, or is it the other way around. What was that anyway, a root?

All the digidestined and digimon looked at the item that had tripped Davis. It looked like a very dirty log, except for one thing, there was a foot attached to the end of it.

"It's a leg. Oh my god, someone is in that bush!" Yolei cried. That bush consisted of a huge, short palm tree and three other very leafy bushes that were tangled together to create what seemed to be a wall of branches and leafs. The leg was sticking out underneath all of that in a small hole.

"I bet it's a digimon, let's get him out of there." Davis said. He tried to lift one of the branches. "But I can't move anything."

"Let me help." Gatomon said "Lightning Paw!"

Half the branches were immediately cut, but because they were so entangled, they didn't collapse. Davis and TK went to work and started removing the wall of branches. When TK and Davis finally lifted to palm branch that was covering the body, they dropped it in surprise. There, lying on the ground, bloody and beaten, was the Digimon Kaiser.


	2. Helping

Chapter two

The body of the digimon Kaiser was at the digidestined feet. The famous suit of the tyrant was blackened from mud, dirt and burns. There was a deep gash in Ken's side and another one below his shoulder, both bleeding profoundly. There was another cut on his forehead and scratches, most likely from the branches, all over his neck. Ken's sunglasses were shattered and lying on the ground next to his head, and his cape was ripped into shreds.

"Whoa." Davis said in a low voice. "Who did this?"

"Is he dead?" Yolei wondered.

TK pushed Davis aside and brought two fingers to the side of Ken's neck. He then immediately withdrew them, revolted that he had to touch his worst enemy.

"No, he's not dead, but if the bleeding doesn't stop, he will be. So what should we do?"

"TK, we just can't leave him. Ken may be our enemy, but he is human." Kari said, turning to look away.

"So you expect us to take him with us!?" Davis said bewildered. "After all he's done!?"

"Kari has a point. Besides, he'll be too weak to do anything and I want to know who did this to Ken. This thing must be very powerful to do such damage to the Kaiser" Yolei pointed out, obviously shaken by the sight.

"Hey guys, look over here." Patamon called from a few feet away.

Though Davis and Yolei stayed looking down at the Kaiser, everyone else went over to Patamon. There, also burnt and bleeding, was Wormmon. Cody carefully picked him up and they all went back to Ken's side.

"If we are going to take him, then let's fly." TK said, sounding confident. "We can't very well carry Ken and we need to be in contact with a TV for backup. Kari, you and Cody will fly on Nefertimon, Hawkmon, you'd better digivolve to Halsemon. When you do Yolei and Davis will fly on your back with Ken. Davis, Yolei, be prepared to fight if Ken happens to wake up while in the air. I'll take Wormmon and fly on Pegasusmon. The place we are looking for is going to be a large lake."

The digidestined looked at TK for a minuet, then nodded in agreement. The three digimon digivolved into champion, while Davis and Yolei took Ken and dumped him onto Halsemon, then got on each side of him to hold him down.

"Let's go" Davis said once everything was done.

In the air, Davis and Yolei were having a conversation about what to do:

"So, does this mean we have a new enemy" Davis asked loudly over the wind.

"I hope not. This may just be one of Ken's digimon that got out of control and tried to destroy him. But what digimon do we know that could do this much damage, especially since Ken has a whole army of enslaved ones?" Yolei yelled in reply.

"Good point. I can't wait to hear what Ken says when he wakes up and realizes his enemies have him."

"Umm, Davis. Maybe before he wakes up, you should take that whip away from him." Yolei yelled

"OK." Davis yelled back, taking the whip off of Ken's side. "Cool, I've always wanted a whip."

Yolei rolled her eyes.

When Ken did wake up, he was laying on his back. His vision was blurred, but he thought he saw someone looming above him. The Kaiser turned his head to the right, and his vision cleared enough to see Wormmon lying next to him, bandaged. Ken then saw that the shoulder of his shirt was ripped off and a bandage was fastened to his shoulder. Ken turned his head the other way and saw the worst possible scenario. Two of his enemies, Kari and Cody, cleaning the gash in his side, with Yolei kneeling there with her helmet being used as a bucket for water.

"What the..." Ken said suddenly, making all three of them turn. He immediately tried to sit up, but because of the pain from his side, lay back down again. He then promptly dug his nails into his hip, in the hope that he was dreaming. When he felt the sharp pains run through his body, he growled from anger and started to yell.

"What happened? What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

"Hey! Calm down, Ichijouji. If you move, you're going to bleed again."

Ken looked up and saw Davis Motamiya standing over him, arms crossed and face scowling. Ken narrowed his eyes, but could do no more, which made him angry and helpless.

"This cannot be happening. It just can't." Ken said

"What can't, Ken?" Yolei asked quietly

"Yolei, why don't you go get Ken some water. Cody, can you get a clean cloth, the cape will do." Kari said before Ken could talk back to Yolei.

"Aren't you the Girl Scout. I mean, you have all this first aid stuff." Ken decided to say to Kari.

"It's actually Yolei's. Since we fight a lot, Yolei brings bandages and things from her parent's store. A safety precaution. The blanket is mine; I bring it with me every time we go into the digiworld, ever since Cody fell into that icy ocean." Kari said before realizing she was making small talk with her worst enemy. Davis had decided to go over to TK and see what he was doing.

"Something's wrong with the gate" TK said, standing in front of the TV with his D-terminal. "I can't open it and no e-mail seems to be able to be sent."

"Could Ken have something to do with this?" Davis asked

"Maybe, but from what Izzy tells me, the gate has many firewalls that can't usually be tampered with. And besides, if Ken had that kind of skill, he would have done it months ago." TK counteracted. He looked over to see Yolei coming back with water for Ken.

"Here. And it's not poisoned if that's what your thinking" She said, handing him a large hollow pod filled with water. Ken, who was now sitting up with support of Kari, took the pod, sniffed the contents, then sipped it, all the while looking at Yolei with narrowed eyes. At that moment, TK jogged up to the Kaiser.

"I'll be blunt, we can't get to the real world." TK said in a suspicious voice. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Ken looked at TK for a moment, the raised an eyebrow.

"Do you really think I have the power to meddle with such forces? It's impossible for any human to do such a thing." Ken then made a half smile. "But, I do know of a digimon who has that power."

"Who?" Everyone there asked

Ken's small sly smile quickly turned into a scowl.

"Vexilmon."


	3. Story

Disclaimer: digimon is not mine.

Chapter 3

"Vexilmon?"

"Yeah." Ken said straightening himself and wincing. "He's a mega and a very mean one at that. His attack is venom explosion, but he doesn't need that because he can control almost any digimon, anywhere."

"Is he the one who did this to you?" Kari asked gently

Ken stared at her for about five seconds before deciding to reply

"Yes. And he may just as well be after you too."

"Ken? Do you mind filling in a few blanks for us?" Davis said walking over to the group surrounding Ken with Cody.

"If I must."

*Flashback *

The wind whipped the Kaisers face, but he didn't care. The digi-brats had just gotten into the digital world and the Kaiser wanted to make sure they got a pleasant welcome. He had five Airdramon surrounding the sixth one that held the Kaiser. They were suppose to be going to East Server, which was known for it's many deserts, but when the Kaiser looked down, all he saw were foreign trees.

"YOU FOOLS!!! Get back on track and head to our destination. I have no time for your stupidity!" Ken yelled at the digimon. Instead of turning, the Airdramon simply ignored him. Ken looked at his D-3 to see if he may have lost control of them, but everything was working perfectly. Ken took out his whip and promptly cracked it in front of the Airdramon's eye, no reaction, by the ear, no reaction. When Ken whapped the Airdramon's body with the whip, the only reaction he got from it was that it seemed to be slowing down. The Kaiser looked around as the digimon came to a complete stop in midair. What he saw was something humanoid coming toward him. As the thing got closer, Ken could see that the thing was actually a liquid that somehow was holding a shape. When it stopped, the Kaiser could see it's body pulsating with what looked like acid, but the weirdest thing was when it spoke, the voice was only heard in his head.

Hello little Kaiser. How wonderful to see you for the first and last time. The voice said

"You are so confident that you will defeat me, yet you do not know my power." The Kaiser smirked.

I will defeat you, and then the digital world will be under my command. There will be no opponents once they feel MY POWER The voice said. Do well to remember my name, Kaiser. Vexilmon will be the last thing you will ever hear. HAHAHA, VENOM EXPLOSION.

With that, four of the Airdramon were shot with the acid from his body and immediately vanished. Then, the Airdramon that didn't hold Ken shot at him, even though the Airdramon still had a dark spiral on. Ken ducked the first eye beam, but Wormmon took the second, giving him a huge gash. After that, the Airdramon that was holding Ken flew very fast and did a barrel roll, dropping Ken and Wormmon from his head. A Tyranamon looked up and shot at the falling Kaiser, singeing his clothes and arm. This was followed by both Airdramon shooting at Ken with their eye beams. If it wasn't for the fact that Ken was falling, all four beams would have hit dead center, but only two were able to hit, one on the shoulder and another in the side. Then, for the finale, the Airdramon used its tail to slap Ken and Wormmon into the trees fifty feet below them.

*End Flashback*

"I completely blacked out after that, so I have no idea how I survived the fall." Ken said finishing up his encounter with Vexilmon.

"That's incredibly lucky." TK said

"You're sure he's going to try and destroy us." Cody asked

"You're going to fight him, right? He said that there will be no opponents, so it's pretty obvious he's going to destroy whoever fights him." Ken said evenly.

"Then I guess we're allies" Kari stated

"What?" Everyone said looking at her as if she was insane

"It's logical." Kari defended. "If we're going to get back home, then we need to defeat Vexilmon. Five digimon won't cut it. We need more and Ken has it. The more digimon, the harder to control all of them. It's a distraction and the only way we're going to defeat a mega with a bunch of champions."

Davis started pacing. Not only was there a new, more powerful enemy, but now Ken was allying with the group. Davis needed a scapegoat, and the easiest one was Ken.

"This is all your fault you know, Ken." Davis said angrily

"My fault? How is it my fault?" Ken asked now just angry

"If it weren't for your stupid towers, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"First of all, you have no right to comment on my strokes of genus. And second, Vexilmon is an independent, unrelated to our little battles"

"Maybe, but if you weren't here, our digimon would be able to digivolve and fight this blob thing."

"Ha, your digimon are so weak they can barely handle armor digivoloving"

"Oh yeah? If that's so then how come we keep..."

CRACK

Kari, who had foreseen a major fight in the making, decided to take Ken's whip that was lying by their other bags and whack it against the ground. The whip was hurled at such force that it created a small crater where it hit and made such a loud noise that even Kari jumped. Both Davis and Ken immediately stopped yelling at each other and turned to look at Kari.

"We are not here to talk about politics." Kari said in a very low, angry voice. "We need to work together."

Ken, who was now using Yolei for support, and the other digidestined stared at Kari for around a minuet. She looked extremely vicious with the whip fully extended in her right hand and a scowl that didn't seem to fit her usually gentle face. As Kari started to yell at the two arguers, Cody heard a soft moan. It seemed that the whip's sound had woken Wormmon from his comatose state, and now all the digidestined's digimon were crowded around him. Veemon, who must have picked up some of Davis's rudeness, stuck his face in front of Wormmon's and said 

"Hey buddy, you OK?"

Wormmon stared at Veemon for a second blinking. None of the other digidestined saw Cody walk over to Wormmon because Kari, who had just stopped yelling at Davis for trying to make the situation worse and was now screaming at Ken about why he was talking back to the obviously provocative keeper of courage, was keeping everyone preoccupied. Cody kneeled down on one knee to talk to their worst enemy's digimon, thinking to himself how Ken looked as though he had never been yelled at before now. Which, Cody thought, is probably true.

"Nice to see you up, Wormmon. Feeling better?" Cody said nicely

"Where's Master?" Wormmon said worriedly

"Ken's fine. It seems you guys took a bit of a fall." Cody said

"Mm hm, I know. I tried to protect Master, but he just fell through the net I created." Wormmon cried

"_So that's how Ken survived, Wormmon slowed his fall._" Cody thought

"You need to rest some more, so why don't I get you some food" Cody said

"OK"

Kari was just finishing up with Ken, whose eyes were wide open in shock, and decided to address everyone.

"Look, it's getting late. Let's make camp for the night and we'll think of what to do tomorrow. Yolei, can you get the packet of matches out of the survival kit you brought with you? TK, you and Davis can see what food you can catch and find from the stream nearby, OK. Now go."

Davis, who had been almost cowering in terror at Kari's wrath, now went with TK happily. Yolei went over to her backpack; therefore handing Ken over to Kari, who helped him get himself situated by leaning on a tree. Cody saw what was going on and built a small fireplace, while the digimon went looking for branches to feed the fire.

"Fish and berries, what a lovely combination." Yolei complained "The food from my parent's store is much tastier and more edible."

TK and Davis did have success, bringing back twelve fish and some brightly colored berries that the digimon said were OK. The digimon had gobbled up their portion, and were looking at their partners for more. Ken picked at his burnt fish and gave most of it to Wormmon, who hadn't left Ken's side once since the digimon got up on his feet. When darkness came, everyone was anxious to get to sleep and not worry about the day's trouble.

It must be around eleven, Yolei thought to herself. Davis's snoring was becoming increasingly louder with every minuet. She had been trying to get to the real world, but no response. Bypassing the firewalls was harder than she thought and the digivice was getting her nowhere. She tried one more time to open the gate by pulling out her red digivice and pointing at the TV.

"Digiport open." Yolei said quietly. When it did nothing, she became fed up and slammed her fist into the side of the TV.

"That won't get you anywhere and you might wake up the others." A voice to the right of her said

Yolei looked up and walked to the source of the voice. When she got there, she was just able to make out the thin figure of the Kaiser propped against a tree in the darkness.

"What are you doing awake?" Yolei asked in a whisper

"Can't sleep with pain in my side and my shoulder." Ken said quietly "and you?"

"Can't get to the real world. Hey, would you like company? It must be pretty lonely." Yolei said looking down at the four sleeping bodies and their respective digimon.

"I guess." Ken sighed. He moved over to allow Yolei to sit next to him and winced slightly from the pain stabbing his shoulder. He looked at her standing next to him.

"Pull up some grass." Ken said. "It's going to be a long night." 


	4. Plans

Chapter 4

"The stars are pretty tonight" Yolei said. She and Ken had been staring in silence for about a half-hour, looking into the digital sky. Yolei wasn't that keen on speaking to her enemy, but if she didn't break the silence, Yolei thought it would kill her. Ken, in response to Yolei speaking, rolled his head to the left to look at her.

"I guess they are. I don't really think of stars as anything more than burning clumps of hydrogen." Ken said tiredly. Normally, Ken wouldn't have even bothered with talk, but he was incredibly bored. "But, as long as we're on the subject, do you see that cluster of stars to the left?

"Yeah."

"That's called the Gizadrom. Many say it looks like a Gizamon, though I never saw it." Ken said smartly

Yolei now turned her head to look at Ken, confused.

"How do you know this?" She asked

"Gekomon. Annoying digimon, but have amazingly good records. When I took one of their cities, I came across a library full of books. They contained information of Astronomy, History and just facts about this world. I downloaded as much as I could onto my base computer and have been studying it." Ken said in reply.

Yolei stared even more at Ken and gave him the strangest look.

"You find that stuff interesting? I mean I would, but you trying take over this place, not learn about it."

"Yes, well." Ken coughed, shifting uncomfortably, seeming embarrassed "How can I conquer something I don't even know?"

"I guess that's true." Yolei said. After that they stared in silence at the sky again for around five minuets. Then Yolei gathered up her courage and asked the long awaited question.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What? Staring at the sky?" Ken asked

"No. Why are you trying to take over the digiworld and fighting us?" Yolei said trying to keep her courage.

Ken sighed. He'd wondered which one of his enemies would be the one to ask the question. It had only been a matter of time.

"Isn't that what Kari didn't want us to do?" Ken asked, thinking the day's event's and shuddered. "I don't ever want to listen to that scream again."

"But Kari's not awake. The least you could do is try to make me understand you."

Ken looked at Yolei and gave her a short smile for her persistence. The fact was, he was only playing this game because an unknown voice in his head. Ken really didn't want to admit that something was compelling him to play, some force that almost seemed to be controlling him.

"Let's just say, that destiny has made me what I am and there's really nothing you can do about it." Ken finally said

"OK. But, if fighting us is destiny, then why are we working together?"

For once in his life, Ken was speechless.

"The stars are pretty tonight, Ken." Yolei said trying to lighten the mood

"Yes Yolei, yes they are."

And with that the two enemies watched in silence as a shooting star fell from overhead. Then some where around one o'clock, sleep finally took hold of Ken.

***

Ken woke up to something really smelly smothering his face and a lot of weight on his good shoulder. He painfully used his injured arm to take of the smelling item and see what was going on.

"Up and at'em, sunshine" Ken heard Davis say sarcastically as he blinked in the sunlight. He looked and saw Davis zipping up the bag he had brought with him and giving him an amused smile. Ken then looked over to his left and what he saw made his eyes widen in shock. Yolei must have fallen asleep next to him and had her head resting on his shoulder.

"Yolei?" Ken said while moving his shoulder, hoping to wake her up. "Wake up."

"Hmmm? What's going on?" Yolei said sleepily. She opened her eyes and saw what she had used as a pillow. Needless to say, she was startled.

"Ahhh! I am so sorry Ken! I didn't realize... Hey, Davis! What are you staring at? It's not like we did anything." Yolei loudly said in Ken's ear. While Davis laughed his head off, Yolei stood up and walked to the lake to wash up.

"Sure you didn't!" Davis called to her retreating back while Ken was caught between shock and embarrassment. "Anyway, Ken, you should put those clothes on."

Ken looked at what he had taken off his face. It was a black T-shirt and in front of him was a pair of olive green kaki shorts.

"And where did you get these?" Ken said looking disgusted.

"Those are my gym clothes, I had gym yesterday. And, unless you want to walk around with bloody, dirty and ripped clothing, I suggest you put them on." Davis said bluntly

Ken grumbled, but gathered up the clothes and used the tree to help stand. He almost didn't make it, but then Davis came over and straightened Ken up and Ken walked away still clutching his side. When Ken came back from the woods, he almost looked like Ken Ichijouji, not the digimon Kaiser, well, except for the hair, which was still as wild as ever. Breakfast was fish again and no one complained. In fact, no one really talked at all, for they were to busy looking at Ken in shock. The only one who didn't seem to shocked was Wormmon, who was still calling Ken master. The only reason, the digidestined concluded, that Wormmon wasn't getting abused was because Ken still didn't have the strength to hit or kick.

"Hey guy's?" TK said nervously after breakfast. "I just looked at my D-Terminal and this map came up."

TK showed everyone the screen on his D-Terminal. Instead of a chart like the Control Spire map, it was a map of the digiworld with a red line running through it that was moving steadily.

"It must be a progression of Vexilmon's movement." Ken said, putting his genius skills to work. "Someone must have sent this to help us track him."

"Like the Control Spire map!" Kari realized. When Ken looked at her confused Kari said "A few days upon getting our D-3's, we came across a map that showed all the Spires you put up."

"You have that map too? Interesting." Ken said, surprised but trying not to show it.

"Kari, now would be the time to explain your master plan to us." Yolei said

"OK. From what we know, Vexilmon has the power to control digimon. We also know his venom explosion can destroy digimon in seconds and that he's a mega. We have to do something about him, and this may seem rash to some of you, but we may have to destroy him." Kari explained

"We can't just destroy a digimon! That would be like...like...well it would be like him." Cody exclaimed pointing across at Ken. Ken narrowed his eyes, but a piercing look from both Kari and Yolei kept his mouth shut.

"Well, what would you rather have. Me and TK have dealt with digimon like this before. There's no reasoning with them and at times, destroying them is the only way to restore the balance. Now, if you do want to be kinder we can try and spiral him but..." Kari said getting annoyed

"I doubt that's possible." Ken interrupted "My spirals are meant for solid digimon, not ones that have acid bodies."

"But... digimon are living creatures!" Cody argued

"Sure they are. And so is the Easter bunny and Santa Claus." Ken muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"I'm sorry Cody, but some times you have to do things like this." TK said somberly. Then he looked up at Kari. "Now that that's settled, how do you plan to do this?"

Kari stood up and kneeled in front of Ken in a respective manner. Ken was confused. Not one of his enemies gave him respect, not that he expected it. Something was up.

"Ken, we're vulnerable out in the open like this; we need access to computers and digimon. You have to take us to your base." Kari said, not blinking once. Ken looked at her for a second before bursting out in laughter.

"Good joke, Kamiya. Really funny." Ken laughed. "Like you'd expect me to just tell you where my HQ is."

Kari stared at him with unblinking, serious eyes.

"Hey Ken, I don't think that was a joke." Davis said indignantly once Ken had stopped laughing out loud.

Ken looked at Kari again. She was still in the kneeling position, but now she was biting her lower lip in a sign of nervousness.

"I'm not telling you where the base is." He said bluntly

"If you don't tell us then we'll just beat it out of you." Davis said walking over there and curling his hand into a fist. He started to raise it but another hand caught it.

"Wait." Yolei, the holder of that hand said. She bent down to look eye to eye with Ken. Yolei stared at him for a moment. Then she slapped him upside the head.

"Ow! Hey, what did you do that for!?" Ken yelled

"Didn't you listen to anything we talked about last night?" Yolei yelled in return "You said that destiny made you what you are, right? Well wake up. We're working together and that's not just fate. And by the way, I heard what you said earlier; digimon are real, so get with the program. You know you can change your destiny, and you know that this isn't your destiny. If fate is to run it's course, then we're going to die from Vexilmon, and I want to stay alive. It's your decision Ken. You make the choice."

Ken looked like he was going to beat Yolei up on the spot, no matter what injuries he had. Davis and TK got ready to take Ken out if need be, but nothing came to that. Instead, Ken sighed, as if to concede defeat, and closed his eyes.

"Please Ken, an answer." Kari said quietly

Ken looked up and smiled.


	5. Suprise attack

Authors notes: Sorry if I got any attacks wrong.

Chapter 5.

They were flying again, but this time it was different. After the breakfast conversation, the digidestined packed up everything and Ken got to take his whip back as well. Everyone was more relaxed and even Cody was laughing at some of Davis's misplaced jokes. Ken did decide to reveal the location of his base, and the thought of the digidestined worst enemy being gone forever enlightened everyone. Though, Ken still didn't think digimon were real and would keep changing his attitude from kind Ken Ichijouji to the digimon Kaiser, everyone could tell he was beginning to lighten up. Now that they were all together as a team, there was barely any need for suspicion. So, to Davis's delight, Davis was sitting with Kari and Veemon on Nefertimon, Cody was holding on to Wormmon and Armadillomon with TK on Pegasusmon, and Ken was straddling Halsemon holding Yolei's shoulders for balance and support.

"I don't feel so good." Davis whined

"Stop complaining Davis." Kari yelled behind her. "Ken said the base is dead ahead."

Davis looked at all the trees that lay in front of him in an endless wall.

"Dead is what I'm going to be if this ride doesn't stop soon."

"I quiet agree with you there, Davis." Ken yelled from above him. "My Airdramon are much better flyers and there are no feathers to get in your face."

"Hey, watch the feathers." Halsemon warned.

TK, who unfortunately listened to that discussion, shook his head. Then TK opened his D-terminal to the map and his eyes widened in fear.

"Oh shit, PULL UP!" He yelled to everyone

VENOM EXPLOSION

The psychic voice was so loud that everyone held their heads in pain and the flying digimon just barely got out of the acid's way in time.

"We need to get below the tree line!" Ken yelled "The digimon can take him in the air, but we're sitting ducks on their backs!"

"So what are you proposing?" Yolei yelled in terror

"That we..."

So, I finally meet the famous digidestined. Vexilmon said You will be a pleasure to destroy.

The liquidated head looked at them. It stopped at Halsemon, and if Vexilmon had eyes, they would have been wide with shock.

YOU! Well, it looks like the digimon Kaiser lives. This is going to be even more fun. Not only will I destroy the digidestined, but now I get to kill the Kaiser, again.

Ken waited for the digimon to become completely under Vexilmons control, but instead, Vexilmon just did another venom explosion.

"JUMP!" Ken screamed. He took Yolei's wrist and pulled himself and her off of Halsemon just as the acid went whizzing by where they had been. Halsemon was able to barely evade the acid.

All the digidestined, seeing how close their companions had come to being killed, followed that same suit and jumped toward them. Wormmon leapt out of Cody's arms and fell towards his partner. Ken turned his head to look at the green worm falling and approaching him.

"Use your attack!" Ken yelled, remembering Cody telling him how Wormmon saved his life. "Your sticky net is the only thing that will save us." Then Ken reverted back into the Kaiser mood. "And this time, Make sure it's strong."

"OK Ken! Sticky net." Wormmon yelled back. He had started calling Ken by his real name ever since Ken smiled, and for some reason, Ken didn't yell at him.

Wormmon hooked a huge net onto the limbs of four trees standing about fifteen feet apart from one another. Ken and Yolei were the first to land. They were flat on their backs when they landed and bounced once. They instantly rolled to the edges and stood up as TK and Davis landed were Ken and Yolei had just been. As Kari and Cody were falling, unfortunately, Vexilmon tried to hit them with acid. The acid didn't hit, but the force made both of them blow off course and Kari almost didn't make it but was able to catch the side of the net with her hands. Cody, being the lightest, wasn't going to make it without help.

"Cody!" Yolei screamed

Seeing the end, Cody took Armadillomon's paw. Armadillomon was hugging onto Cody's side as he had seen Veemon do.

Whoosh!

Ken, being greatly skilled with the whip, hurled it towards the falling boy. Instead of being slapped with it, the whip wrapped itself around Cody's arm. Ken gave a hard tug and in midair, Cody moved and was able to land in the center of the net. Ken then bent down and unwound his whip without a word and the whip retracted into it's resting position.

"You...you saved my life" Cody managed to gasp.

Ken, who was most definitely now in one of his Kaiser moods, just looked up at the battle above him and didn't acknowledge anyone else's existence. The combat between the digidestined digimon raged. First, Halsemon tried his "tempest wing." All it did was spray the acid everywhere. Nefertimon then tried using her Rosetta stones, but they just disintegrated on impact. However, when Pegasusmon used his Aqueous Beam, the attack made Vexilmon back up.

AARGH He screamed in the digidestined heads

"Of course! No physical attacks will work, but energy beams can hurt him." Kari realized.

Davis cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted "HEY! USE YOUR BEAM ATTACKS!!!"

"Right." Nefertimon said "Did everyone hear that. Energy beam attacks are our best shot."

"Hawks Eye."

"Cat's Eye Beam."

"Aqueous Beam"

All three beams hit on target and were able to drive Vexilmon back. Still, being a mega, not much of his strength was lost and he attacked.

Venom Explosion!

Halsemon and Pegasusmon evaded the attack, but Nefertimon was hit. Instead of bursting into dust though, she just dedigivolved and was weakened.

"Gatomon! Hang on." Halsemon yelled as the cat digimon fell. Halsemon went into a dive after her. The sudden events distracted Pegasusmon and Vexilmon took this as a chance to hit him with acid. By the time Halsemon caught both weakened rookies in his talons, Vexilmon had fled. Halsemon sighed and spiraled down to drop Patamon and Gatomon into their partners waiting arms.

"Good job Halsemon." Yolei said, patting him on the head as he came to rest on a branch.

"We'd better get going." TK said hugging his digimon. "Vexilmon may have left for now, but he is a mega and he will be back. Let's get to safety before sundown."

"It's not far, Takashi. The question is, are your digimon up to it." Ken said, almost annoyed.

"Are you guys OK?" Kari asked Gatomon

"Yeah."

"All right then. Digi-Armor energize."

Soon, they were all back in they air. But now Cody was looking at the map at all times.

"Vexilmon's most definitely regrouping. He knows that we know his weakness." TK yelled to the group from Pegasusmon's back

"Which means that we need to be more strategic. What I want to know is why he just didn't take control of the digimon and set them against us?" Ken yelled back

"Because he couldn't, even though he desperately wanted to." Nefertimon yelled. "I could feel him going around in my head, but there's something about us that makes it impossible to be subject to mind control."

"I'm willing to bet that being chosen as digidestined digimon have something to do with it." Yolei contemplated out loud

Kari looked where they were headed. The trees came to an abrupt stop and a vast desert started. As soon as they started to fly over the desert, a major wave of intense heat washed over them.

"Hot. This is very hot." Yolei complained

"This place is called silicon desert for its abundance of the metal." Ken explained

"And why would you build anything here." Davis asked, fanning himself

"What do you think control spires are made of?" Ken said, raising a brow.

Then, all of the sudden, the digimon went over a cliff and a large metal dome came into view.

"There it is. There's my base." Ken said pointing at it from Halsemon's back.


	6. In the base

Author's notes: Thanks for waiting so long. This chapter isn't action, I just want to warn you. While looking at review's, a person by the name of emu brought up an idea of me dedicating this to an author. Thanks for the idea and I think that Athena, author of Donkey Madness is the one I'm going to dedicate it to because she inspired me to write it. But the one's I also want to thank are all my reviewer's. So, on with the story.

Chapter 6

It seemed like a very small structure for the base of a person with so much power. But, all around the dome were control spires and ringed and spiraled dinosaur digimon patrolling everywhere.

"Stop!" Ken yelled "Land on the cliff, now."

All three flying digimon gently hit the ground and Ken jumped off. He brought two fingers to his lips and let out a high pitched whistle. The many ringed digimon stopped moving and looked up at the cliff. Ken then rapidly spoke something that, to the Japanese speaking digidestined, sounded like gibberish. However, it must have some type of password because the digimon lined up in two straight lines and created a path leading to the dome.

"Come on." Ken said, hopping back on Halsemon. They glided down to the path and the group walked toward the dome while the digimon dedigivolved.

"What did you say?" Yolei whispered to Ken, looking at the unmoving digimon who seemed to be standing attention.

"I happen to be trilingual." Ken explained. "I am fluent in English and Spanish as well as Japanese. What I said was 'let me through' in English."

"Why English?" Yolei asked, confused.

"Because my enemy's, you and your friends, are Japanese and it's more secure to have a password in a language other than the one most spoken by my enemies."

"Oh." Yolei said

They reached the metal dome in five minuets and as soon as they did, the ringed digimon went back to patrolling the area. Ken walked to a numbered panel and typed in a few numbers. The hidden door next to it instantly opened. Ken lead the way into the dark hall. Everyone was completely silent and the only sound that was heard was the quick steps of the group and the occasional flapping from Patamon The hallway, all of the sudden, opened up into a pitch black space.

"Lights on" Ken said, making everyone jump three feet. Overhead lights shimmered on and light up the huge room, revealing a throne-like recliner chair and about one hundred screens scattered around and infront of the chair. Four hallways lead away from the room, two of which had stairs that went underground. Ken walked over and pressed a few buttons on the wall. Five of the screens in front of him hummed and flickered on.

"I have work to do. You are free to rome around, but don't tamper with anything." Ken addressed.

"OK." Kari said. "Just one question, where is your shower? I haven't had one in a day and if I don't soon I'm going to smell like Davis."

Everyone but Davis snickered.

"All items requiring plumbing are down that hall." Ken said pointing to the shortest corridor. "There are two doors. Don't go in the second one because that's my room. OK?"

"Thank you." Kari said starting to walk down that hall. Ken turned back to the screens and brought up a side veiw of the base, in which all the halls could be seen running deep underground. He then brought up the spire map. The rest of the digidestined just watched.

"Davish?" Veemon said, pulling on Davis's arm. "I'm hungry."

"But you're always hungry." Patamon said

"That may be true, but it would be good to replenish our energy, just in case Vexilmon shows up again." TK said smiling

"Ken?" Davis said, walking up to him. "Umm, can you tell where the food is?"

Ken sighed, annoyed that anyone would dare bother him from his work.

"If you want food, it's down the other hall." Ken said indignantly. "Now don't bother me anymore."

With that, Ken turned back to the screens and Davis, Yolei, TK, Cody, Armadillomon, Veemon, Hawkmon, Gatomon and Patamon walked off. Ken loaded up a digi-port that, of course, couldn't be opened. He cracked his knuckles and started working on a way to open it.

*In the Real World*

"IZZY! Can't you open a port any sooner?!" Tai said, frustrated. "Do you know how many times I lied to my and Yolei's parents last night? It was like they couldn't stop asking where their daughter's were."

"Yeah, and Davis's parents were bombarding me with questions on the whereabouts' of their son and TK." Matt said, just as frustrated.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Izzy said franticly. "Usually, when thery're in the digiworld, I can open a port, but I can't get through. There's a very complicated firewall blocking me."

"SO! Break it!" Tai yelled

"It's not that simple. I need someone who's on the other side. Then I'll be able to create a program that will make a loophole and can be executed through both the digital world and the real one. Unfourtantly, that person has to be on at the same time as me, and I can't be here 24-7. Plus, that person needs access to a programing computer such as a laptop, which none of the digidestined have, not even Yolei." Izzy said sadly, still typing at an incredibly fast speed.

"So you're saying this is an impossible situation." Stated Matt.

Izzy turned to look at him.

"No, I'm merely stating that until I get more information, your going to have to be patient."

Izzy turned back to the screen and tryed to bring up the digi-port. Just as Izzy was able to log on to the main network of the port, Joe and Sora walked in. Joe had brought a supply bag with him.

"When you called to have me run over to Cody's house to create an excuse, you were frantic, Tai." Sora said. "What's up?"

"Well, if you haven't noticed, we have a major situation here." Tai said sarcasticly and annoyed.

"Tai's just a bit mad because we can't get to the digital world." Izzy explained, turning to address Sora. "Yesterday, the younger group went to knock down some spires, but for some reason, they never returned. Good thing it was friday, or we wouldn't have been able to pull off the excuses for the worried parents."

"And now, we can't make contact with them through the digi-port." Matt said angrily.

"Oh no." Sora exclaimed.

Izzy turned back to the monitor.

"Ahh! No! I was so close to getting in!" Izzy cried, banging his head on the keyboard.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"The mainframe crashed! I must have gotten in, but without the proper program, the computer wasn't able to comply and crashed. This firewall is harder to get around than the wall of China. I'll need more time." Izzy said sadly.

"Oh, well, that's OK. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with being trapped in the digiworld without food or contact and having the digimon Kaiser trying to kill you at any second" Tai said, dripping in sarcasm.

*Back in the Digital World*

"For a guy who spends most his time doing homework, soccer, and taking over the world, Ken sure doesn't eat much." Davis complained, observing the contents in his enemy's fridge. Compared to the junk food/kid food diet Davis was used to, Ken ate extremely healthy food. There was a small bowl full of uncooked rice, a stalk of celery, a container of homemade sushi, some carrots, milk, carbonated water, an apple and a few apricots. Next to the fridge was a small portable electric stove that held a teapot with teabag tags sticking out the top. There was one self standing cupboard that contained items such as cereal, non-perishable fruit, spices and a small cup of sugar. Veemon was very disappointed that there were no cookies. A large sink stood next to the stove and a drying rack next to that. To the suprise of everyone, there was only one digimon slave, a geckomon who stood quietly, stacking the dried plates from the rack.

"Well? Our digimon are starving. Whats there that they can eat?" Yolei said impatiently.

"Sushi seems to be the only lunch item here that's edible." Davis said pouting. He had only had sushi once, and to his knowledge, it was awful tasting. However, Davis took the container and placed on the small, square, one person table that sat in the middle of the square, one windowed room that was the kitchen. Armadillomon, having had sushi before from Cody, took one of the California rolls and gulped down a huge bite. Seeing that, the other digimon ventured forward and started to nibble on the seaweed wrapped raw fish.

The rest of the digidestined sat down on the floor to talk and eat.

"I still can't get over the fact were in the Kaiser's base of operations." Yolei said.

"I know. But don't you think it's strange how he's been hospitable to us?" TK questioned.

"I guess. However, we are fighting together now. You know the old saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Cody said.

"Yeah. But he doesn't want to be friends with us. I mean, after all this is over, aren't we going back to fighting one another?" Yolei asked

"I hope not. But we'll have to see. Why, what do you think, Yolei?" Davis said.

"Well, I was just remembering a quote I heard once: When you rely on someone with your life, all differences are put aside. Maybe that's whats going on. Ken does need us, and we need him." Yolei said.

"But how can he put his differences aside. They're compleatly opposite to our belifs and we have been in more fights about these differences than I can count." Cody exclaimed.

"Then how did we manage to put our differences aside to help him out back in the woods. Ken was going to die without our help. If we hadn't helped him, the war would have been over. But we did help him, and I have no regrets." Yolei said. She finished up her sushi. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to see what our enemy is doing right now."

Yolei got up and left. The others ate in silence.

In the control room, Ken was watching the displays intently. Now, all five screen held something: the closed digi-port, the spire map, ring data, the veiw of the base and now the map of Vexilmon's movements.

"What'cha up to?" A voice said to the left of Ken. Ken turned his head to see Yolei looking at the screens next to him.

"Oh, it's you." Ken said tiredly "If you must know, I've been working on two tasks. I've been trying to get into the digi-port, but unless someone logs onto the network, I can't do anything. And so far, the last person to log on was around a half hour before I was able to crack the access code. Someone I beleive by the username of 'Knowledgebug'."

"That's Izzy. One of the older digidestined." Yolei said excitedly

"Well, anyway. The other thing I've been working on is a way to modify my base's interior structer to create a type of energy beam similar to Pegasusmon's. I've already set the program in motion."

"How long will that take?" Yolei asked

"One to two days." Ken said "Give or take a few hours."

"What do we do until then?" Yolei inquired

"We wait."

***

Three hours had past. Since everyone couldn't go outside of the base without running the risk of Vexilmon destroying them, the digidestined found other way's to occupy their time. Cody, deciding to practice his Kendo, was executing attacks in the air with a metal pipe he found. Kari was extreamly happy now that she had taken a shower and was now drying her hair in the bathroom. TK was still trying to get to the real world with no success and decided to watch Cody practice. The digimon, at least the male ones (including wormmon), were challenging each other to playful tests of strengths while Gatomon watched. Yolei and Davis decided to occupy their time by seeing how high of an IQ Ken had. They were in the control room sitting on the floor in front of Ken, who was in his chair, reading off questions from their school books.

"What rock is organically formed?" Yolei said, reading from her earth and space studies book.

"Limestone." Ken said casually.

"Who was the first American president?" Davis asked.

"George Washington."

"How do you say..." Yolei hesitated, thinking. "How do you say 'landscapes' in Spanish?"

"Paisajes."

"What time were the first land animals in?"

"The late Silurian period, in the Paleozoic era and in the Phanerozoic eon." Ken said with a sly smile

"Show off." Davis and Yolei both said at the same time.

"Don't you have any games or anything we could do, because you getting all our questions right and it's getting boring." Davis pleaded

"I didn't get all the questions right. The stuff on your pop culture was compleatly oblivious to me." Ken said, sounding modest even though Davis could see he wasn't.

"THAT WAS ONE QUESTION! Come on Ken, don't you have any video games?" Davis said whining.

"Only one is programmed, and I don't even use it. It's only Donkey Madness."

"PERFECT!" Davis cried. And with that he dragged Ken over to the screen to get him to open up the game.

***

"I say we all go to sleep." TK said, looking at the time on his digivice. "It's ten o'clock."

"Speaking of which, where are we going to sleep?" Cody asked. Everyone turned to look at Ken.

"The control room is very nice at night." Ken said, having a sudden intrest in his nails.

"Come on Ken! It's cold out here and we won't know where anything is in the dark." Kari said in a very persuasive voice.

"Fine! You can sleep in my room, but you still sleeping on the floor." Ken said angrily

With that settled, Ken took his black night suit and went down to the kitchen room to change, ordered the Geckomon to get out and slammed the door. Kari and Yolei went into a closet where they were able to find five large blankets and pillows, while the boys were in one by one washing up in the bathroom. When Ken came back, he was changed into his night suit, but didn't have Davis's clothes that he was wearing all day with him.

"Hey, where are my clothes?" Davis asked

"Your precious gym clothes are with my outfit, getting washed. Unfortantly, someone ripped my outfit's shoulder off and that outfit materilizes when I'm in the digiworld, so it's the only one I've got."

With that, Ken went into the bathroom. When he came out, everyone was wrapped in their blankets.

"Good night, everyone" Yolei said.

"Good night" echoed in responce.

"Shut down." Ken said. All the lights flickered off. In the control room the screens shutdown, one by one. The last one to shut down was the screen with Vexilmon's movement. The red line, which had so far been going west, suddenly made a sharp turn and headed for the base. Then it too flickered off.


	7. Dream

Chapter 7

It was not a peaceful night.

*Dream Sequence*

Ken was running, but he didn't know why. He was running into pure whiteness, dressed in his Kaiser outfit. All of the sudden, he stopped and looked around. He could hear foot steps echoing.

"Who's there?" Ken yelled angrily.

"Tsk, so young, so angry." A familiar voice said.

Ken swiveled around to look into the eyes of his dead brother.

"Sam." Ken said, as though dead people come to life everyday. "I don't want to talk to you, so stop following me."

"Ken, what are you doing with your enemies?" Sam asked, ignoring the comment.

"We need to work together." Ken scowled

"They'll make you weaker."

"Yeah, well, Ryo and you worked together, but Ryo was weaker."

"It was different then, dear brother." Sam said gently. "Besides, you have no idea what your getting into."

"What's that implying?"

"Vexilmon is closer than you think, Kenny."

"Huh?"

Sam reached out to pat Ken's shoulder, but as he did so, the moving hand turned into a liquid that held shape, like Vexilmon. As soon as the hand touched Ken's body, a burning sensation was felt. The acid spread over his entire body, until Ken felt like he was in a furnace.

*End dream*

Ken woke up in a sweat. He instantly sat up, gasping quietly for air. Nobody heard him and woke up, and Wormmon, who was sleeping at his feet, didn't feel the movement. Ken felt incredibly hot, so he got out of his bed, careful not to disturb the people sleeping on the floor in his small room, and walked out. Ken, still in his night suit, opened the door to the dome and walked into the cool desert climate. The moon was out, so he could see, and Ken moved toward the empty and barren land. All of the patrolling digimon had gone back to their holding cells to be let out tomorrow. When Ken was about a hundred feet from the entrance, tiredness washed over him and he sat on the sand in silence, staring into space. He was there for about five minutes, then with out a sound, a figure dropped in that startled Ken to no end.

"Vexilmon!" Ken whispered harshly. "Trying to kill me by giving me a heart attack?"

unfortunately, no. Though that is tempting. Vexilmon said in his thought speak.

"What do you want then?" Ken asked, backing up slowly, getting ready to run.

I'm giving you a proposition. Join me and help me eliminate these digidestined

Ken stopped walking backwards.

"Even if I did trust you, which I don't, after what you did to me, there is no way that I'd join you. Besides, weren't you trying to kill me?"

Plans change, Kaiser. You must join me, for I must have your digimon slaves. Vexilmon said in a firm tone

"Let me spell it out for you. N-O." Ken said maddened.

The mega digimon sighed.

Then you leave me no choice.

With that, Vexilmon took his liquid arms and before Ken could even move, they went into his ears.

Controlling humans is much more difficult than digimon. This is going to hurt, but don't worry, when it's done, you won't feel a thing.

The liquid arms went deeper into Ken's ears until he was sure they were in his brain. Ken was completely paralyzed, unable to even vibrate his vocal chords to let out a scream. Then his head, no, his brain felt like it was burning. But Ken couldn't even wither in agony. Soon his brain felt like it was engulfed in flames, and the burning started to enter his brain stem. But when it did, a sharp stinging pain was felt in the back of Ken's neck. At that moment, Vexilmon loosened his paralyzing grip and Ken started to yell with all his might.

NO! Vexilmon cried. It can't be.

Soon, Ken's scream was in unison to Vexilmon's. Ken thought he saw a flash of green light, then Vexilmon's connection with Ken's brain was ripped out. Ken sank to his knees, clutching his head in pain.

"Great. Vexilmon fled again." Davis said disappointed.

When Vexilmon had screamed, he woke all the digidestined up. When they found that Ken wasn't in his bed, they ran outside and Patamon digivolved. Now Kari, Yolei, Cody and Davis were huddled around Ken while TK rode on Pegasusmon looking to find Vexilmon and fight him.

"Ken! Ken, talk to me!" Yolei cried

"Are you hurt?" Davis asked worriedly

"Leave me alone." Ken whispered in pain. "I don't need your help."

Ken then stood up, but the action made his migraine hurt even more and he got dizzy from it. Ken teetered on edge, then collapsed into Davis, who caught him.

"I wonder what Vexilmon did to him? An why'd Vexilmon scream like that?" Davis said, looking at his fallen enemy and now ally. TK and Davis took both of Ken's arms and supported him back to the base. Ken staggered over to his bed.

"Thanks." He said in a whispered voice.

"What were you doing? And more important, what was Vexilmon doing?" TK questioned.

"I was just getting some air. Vexilmon came up and asked me to join him. When I refused he...he..." Ken held his head in pain and moaned. "Can someone get me a pain killer from the bathroom?"

Yolei walked out of the room to get the Tylenol. When she came back, Ken was telling what he saw in his head.

"I know what Vexilmon is." He said. Ken looked at Kari. "I saw what he used to be. Kari, I know that you battled the digimon called the 'Dark Masters'. Vexilmon was one of them, in fact, his part of infinity mountain was the framework which held the mountain together. He emptied his memories into me for some reason. I was able to see and feel the fear from Piedmon being defeated; I saw him grow happy when he realized Venomyotismon was defeated; for Myotismon was vexilmon's worst enemy. I felt his resentment toward the digidestined for putting him in hiding. I saw his hatred toward me for coming closer than him to conquering the Digital world, but there's something else there. Another reason why Vexilmon hates me, but I don't know what that is. We have to defeat him, or he will kill us."

Just then a huge tremor rocked the base.

"What's going on!?" Cody said. Ken drag-walked himself over to the control room and sat in his chair. He switched on a screen and pressed a few buttons. The screen loaded up a picture of the prisons in the bottom of the base. There, around ten cells of digimon were blasting up the place. The screen jumped to outside, and quite a few Tyrannomon were sending fireballs at the dome.

"Those digimon have dark spirals on them." TK exclaimed

"Yes, but it doesn't matter. They are under Vexilmon's control." Ken said angrily.

"Hey, where is the guy anyway?" Yolei pointed out. Ken hit a few more buttons and the screen showed pictures of various places until Ken stopped at one.

"There he is!" Davis said, pointing. Indeed, Vexilmon was in the screen, laughing to himself as he watched the base be destroyed. Ken thought how strange it was that Vexilmon was only forty yards away from the exploding base. Ken then noticed how interesting it was that only so many digimon could be under his control in the base. He decided to put the two together and test a theory.

"I think I have something." Ken said excitedly. If what he thought was true, than maybe they could defeat Vexilmon after all. Being a genius did have it's benefits. Ken turned on another screen and loaded up a map of the area they were located. He placed a dot at Vexilmon's location and another at the farthest digimon controlled by Vexilmon. Ken then connected the two lines together and used that line as a radius. Using Vexilmon's location as a centerpoint, Ken drew a sixty yard circle which covered most of the land on the map and a small portion of the base. The theory had worked. Ken's lips coiled into a small smile.

"He can only go so far. That idiot just gave away his greatest weakness, his Achilles' heel."

"What do you mean?" Davis asked, confused.

"Vexilmon's greatest power is his ability to control other digimon." Kari explained, understanding. "But, if his power can only go so far, we could use other digimon to help shoot energy beams at him without the fear of Vexilmon controlling them."

"So how does that help us in this situation?"

"Easy, take some digimon who have beam attacks and start shooting. All we have to do is make sure that they don't get within sixty yard's of him. TK, me and Yolei will use our digimon for close attacks. I'm betting that the Airdramon are the best digimon in these circumstances." Kari said, smiling

"Right" Everyone said. Ken turned back to the screens to get some Airdramon for fighting, while Kari, TK an Yolei ran to the exit and their digimon armor digivolved. Soon the battle raged, Tyrannomon shooting at far away Airdramon, Armor digimon shooting their beam attacks at the mega. Vexilmon started to move toward the base to control more digimon

"Computer, emergency evacuation. Voice identification: digimon Kaiser." Ken shouted into a microphone. As soon as he did that, the floor jerked beneath them and all the digidestined except for Ken were sprawled on the ground. Outside, the ground cracked and faulted until the whole underground base just lifted right up off the ground. Vexilmon stared in shock at it, then all of the beam attacks hit him at once and he decided that fighting wasn't worth his time right now. Vexilmon sped away at an incredibly fast speed, yelling at the digidestined that by daylight, he will be back. The base speed off in the opposite direction, slow, compared to Vexilmon, but at least they were leaving. The ground digimon who had been under the control of Vexilmon just snapped out of their trance and walked away.

"That went well." Ken said sarcastically. He looked at his D-3 and saw the time. "Two o'clock in the morning, three hours before the sun even rises. I should start working on that digi-port again."

Ken turned away and started opening the gate.

*Real world*

Izzy couldn't sleep. He had been working on a program in his head for hours and now he was going to try and execute it. Izzy turned on his computer, looked at the time (one o'clock) and got into the digi-port program. After an hour of failures he got in.

"Prodigious." Izzy whispered. He then looked at a blinking icon that popped up. "What?"

Izzy clicked on the icon. When he did, what looked like an instant messenger box came up, programmed from the digital world. The userID: worldruler01. Izzy typed in a message and pressed enter.

*The Digital World*

"What!" Ken exclaimed. He had only been on the network for a few minutes and there was another person on.

"Yolei!" Ken called. "Take a good look at this."

The userID was Knowledgebug, and this time he was on at the same time Ken was. Ken clicked the little icon and a message box was brought up. Inside, there was a newly sent message:

_Hello- I'm Izzy. It seems that whoever you are, you have a programmable computer. I need your help. Some friends of mine are in dire need of a computer. I can't stay long, but if you wish to create a visual link, log on at 1500 hours (3:00) today. We wish for a friendly encounter. Thank you._

"How nice, they want to see me face to face." Ken said sarcastically. In response to that, Yolei took the keyboard and typed a response message:

_Of course I'd like to meet you. A video-cam will be fine, I'll be there._

Before Ken could pull her away, Yolei sent the message and smiled slyly at Ken.

"You better get ready for your first talk with the digidestined." Yolei said, silently laughing at the dumbfound expression on Ken's face. She walked away to tell the other's that they had made contact with the real world.

***

Three o'clock came too quickly for Ken. Using the same clothes Davis gave him yesterday, Ken got dressed. Prior to the meeting, Kari and TK prodded Ken into disguising himself so the older digidestined weren't alarmed. At 2:59, Everyone, digimon included, was huddled around the screen in which a computer camera was hooked. They were all excited; they would be seeing friends and siblings that they haven't seen in two days. When the clock hit three, Ken, who had his hair tucked into TK's hat and Kari's small sunglasses on, turned on the computer and logged on to the network. The screen was incredibly staticy and fuzzy at first, but Ken uploaded a program that widened the bandwidth and cleared the picture. Soon, Ken could see not only the owner of the Agumon he had captured, but other people he had seen fighting against him. Ken started to walk away so that the others could talk, but Kari and Yolei took his shoulders and shoved him up to the screen. Ken coughed and cleared his throat.

"Hello 'Knowledgebug'." Ken said into the microphone. The older digidestined looked at him.

"Hey. My name is Izzy, and these are my friends: Matt, Tai, Joe and Sora. I am glad we have met. We have decided that if you do not wish to revel you identity, we will not push it." Izzy said smiling, obviously not recognizing his hated enemy.

"That is good, and I assure you that I am doing everything in my power to rectify this crisis. If you have no further questions, your friends would like to talk to you."

Ken moved aside so that everyone could see the screen.

"Kari!" Tai yelled "You're OK!"

"TK!" Matt said with the same enthusiasm. "I was so worried that the Kaiser would catch you."

"Yeah, I think we all had that concern. I'm surprised you were able to meet up with someone who had a computer. But right now, we need to know what's going on." Izzy said.

"We have a new enemy named Vexilmon. He's a digimon and was one of the Dark master's we didn't know about. However, he seems to be very weak compared to any of the others, except maybe Puppetmon" TK said.

"And your friend?"

"He is our ally, OK." Kari told them in a tone that said don't peruse the issue.

"Fine, but how can we help you?" Sora asked. Before anyone could answer back, the screen split into two pictures and a face appeared that had not been seen by the digidestined in years.

"GENNI?" The older digidestined and Ken exclaimed.


	8. The first battle

Author's notes: To clear up any misconception, I said Vexilmon was a dark master and that he ruled a part of infinity mountain. I now realized that Infinity mountain is from File Island and the dark master's place is called Spiral mountain. Sorry.

Chapter 8

Genni smiled down at the children as he had done many times before.

"Hello, young ones. Did I come at a bad time?" He said politely.

Ken shoved in between Yolei and Davis, who looked very confused, to get a better look at the screen.

"What are you doing here old man? How many times have I told you, don't hack into my computers." Ken snarled angrily

"I am here because of the catastrophe that is going on. I don't have time for your petty computer issues. Vexilmon will come, and you must at least be ready for him. Though I am confident you will defeat him, he is strong and powerful." Genni explained

"But Genni, our digimon can only go to the champion level. Hardly enough to defeat him. Even when we fought Puppetmon, our digimon digivolved to ultimate." Kari said somberly

"Yeah, and there are less digimon to fight with, since, thanks to the Kaiser, only the D-3 digidestined have digivolving digimon." Tai said angrily.

"If we could not solve these problems, then I would not be here. Now then, raise your digivices to the screen."

All of the digidestined, including Ken, held out their digivices at the screen's. The screen's then began to glow and a beam of light shot out and was sucked into each device. The digivices glowed for a second before darkening again. They all stared at the small screen's on the devices.

"A program has been downloaded to your digivices that will allow your digimon to digivolve, even with control spires. Remember, this program may help, but it will be your own strengths as a team that will defeat Vexilmon. Once this transmission is done, I can do nothing more for you." Genni said.

"That's great, Genni. Except you're missing one minor detail," Tai said impatiently. "WE CAN'T GET TO THE DIGITAL WORLD!"

"You can't? Well, we'll have to fix that, but once I do, you won't be able to come back.. Good luck." Genni said, almost slyly. Then the screen fuzzed and became whole again. As soon as that happened, the monitor became bright with light. Seeing what was happening, mostly everyone stepped away from the screen. Ken shoved Yolei out of the way and nimbly sidestepped away as five bodies were dumped from the screen to the floor. Well, except for Sora.

"What'd I land on?" Sora exclaimed

"I'll give you one guess." Davis's voice said from underneath her. Sora instantly crawled off of him. Izzy started to get up too, but was instantly downed again by a thin figure that flew out of the screen as it brightened again.

"Izzy!? What am I doing here? First I was looking at the Gap website, then the next thing I know, I'm being sucked into my screen." Mimi cried.

"It's all right. The digital world is in need of our help." Izzy assured her.

"Who was that Genni guy? You all seemed to know him." Davis asked, then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Did I sleep through a meeting or something?"

"He's some kind of guardian for the digidestined. He helped us back when we were here four years ago." Tai said, then he pointed at Ken, still not realizing who he was talking to. "How do you know him?"

"Uhhh, we've met." Ken said quickly, reminding himself that he shouldn't reveal his identity yet. Ken knew he couldn't even hold off two, let alone six anger driven fourteen year old's ready to fight the person who dared to hurt their precious digimon.

"What's your name?" Mimi asked at Ken

"Just call me Sam." Ken said, thinking of the first name that came to mind. The younger digidestined looked thoroughly confused.

"So, just where are we?"

"In the safest place we could possibly be from Vexilmon. " TK said before Ken could answer.

The older digidestined picked themselves up and looked around. Since they had never seen the Kaiser's base before, the first digidestined didn't realize where they were.

"So," Davis began. "how do you think our parent's are going to our sudden disappearances?"

"Ah, don't worry about them. I made my dad promise to fake a camping trip. Since the guy already knows about digimon, I'm sure he won't mind us not actually being there." Matt said, waving the question off. "I know, I know. I'm the best. Don't fret, you can all thank me later."

Everyone rolled their eyes. Tai laughed, then his smile turned into a worried frown.

"What is Vexilmon like, and are our digimon in danger?"

"This Vexilmon guy is a big jerk." Yolei said darkly. "He can control any digimon with his mind and he has a vicious attack in which he shoots acid. He's attacked and almost beaten us twice, but for some reason, he's gotten cold feet and retreated. And the only attacks that weaken him are energy beams."

"Then I guess were up for a little reunion with our partners. If no one objects, let's get moving."

***

Tai and the others had been walking through the vast plains next to a forest for about an hour. Still oblivious to the fact that this was the base of their enemy, the older digidestined went down the floating structure to the land below. TK, whose digimon had the best energy beam, was the only one of the younger digidestined with them just in case Vexilmon had kept to his promise of showing up again. It wasn't long before word had gotten to the digidestined digimon that their partners were looking for them.

"Tai! Tai, I'm so happy your here!" Agumon cried. "Thing have been strange in the digiworld for the past couple of days."

"Matt, it's good to see you, old friend." Gabumon said. "The Kaiser hasn't had any activity for the day or so, did Davis and the others beat him?"

"They didn't mention anything about him, but we have a major problem. There's this digimon by the name of Vexilmon who happens to be the last remaining Dark Master. They are going to need all the backup the they can get. Are you up for a fight pal?" Matt said, beaming at Gabumon.

"We are always ready, right gang?" Tentomon said. All the digimon looked at their partners.

"Yeah!" They said at the same time

***

Cody heard yelling in the control room. When he went to investigate, Cody found Ken standing in front of two angry looking girls and one very pissed off Davis.

"I don't like this." Ken yelled heatedly.

"Well, you don't have to like it, so deal!" Yolei said annoyed.

"I don't want them here. With the older digidestined in this place we run the risk of my exposure, putting not only me, but your loyalty as 'the fighter's for good' in danger!" Ken yelled in a matter-of-fact voice.

"When did _you_ start caring about our well-being?" Davis asked indignantly

"I don't. But, I'd be killed without your help, which puts me in a trapped position. If they find out that you've become allies with the digimon Kaiser, who knows what might happen." Ken scowled viciously. "Have you already forgotten that Vexilmon's a mega. Without digivolving digimon, no one can get near enough to him to even try to defeat him. How do you expect to defeat a mega with only weak armor digimon."

"OK, you just went to far right there. We have so far saved your worthless life twice. Without our digimon, Vexilmon would have killed you by now." Yolei screamed at Ken, incredibly angry.

"Yeah, well, they aren't do-" Ken straightened up and stopped yelling abruptly. Cody walked from around the corner to see what was happening.

"Vexilmon! He's going to ambush the older digidestined." Ken whispered harshly.

"How do you know?" Kari asked, baffled at the sudden statement.

"Being surrounded in darkness allows me to feel movements of darkness. I have to concentrate, but Vexilmon's dark actions are much clearer than before he tried to take over my mind." Ken explained. Ken walked over and turned on the map of Vexilmon. Sure enough, Vexilmon was moving at top speed toward the plains.

"Oh, TK will be able to handle him. And now that the older digidestined have their digimon, it shouldn't be much of a problem." Kari waved off the concern.

"Don't count on it. Vexilmon brought reinforcements." Ken said, bring up another map, this time showing about fifty yellow dots also heading towards the plains.

"What are those?" Yolei cried

"Tyrannomon, all under the control of Vexilmon. There are probably more, since this map only shows ringed digimon. We better get moving." Ken said casually

"No, _we_ are going. You can't exactly show up with your slaves and not expect anyone to be suspicious." Davis said in an authoritative voice. "If we need your help, we'll contact you, got it?"

Ken narrowed his eyes in response. He did not like being pushed around, but what was he going to do about it. The digidestined and their digimon ran toward the exit, leaving Ken to fume in anger.

***

"Hey, do you feel anything?" Agumon asked as the they walked back through the plains.

"What do you mean?" Biyomon said

"The ground, it's shaking." Agumon said worriedly. Everyone stopped and stood quietly.

"Hey, you're right! The ground is shaking." Tai confirmed. Just then, there was a huge roar and fireballs started coming at them. The digidestined looked around in panic and saw the fifty ringed Tyrannomon surrounding them and about twenty other various digimon with a diversity of destructive powers in the air above them.

"Ambush!" Matt yelled and looked for an escape route. When he couldn't find one, Matt looked down on his digimon friend and partner. "I hope Genni was true to his word. I believe you know what to do"

The digivice let out the familiar screech and Gabumon started to glow.

"Gabumon digivolve to...Garurumon"

Garurumon jumped and shielded Matt from an incoming fireball, then Howling Blaster'd another one.

"Hey Agumon, why don't you show these Tyrannomon who's the top dinosaur in this place." Tai said with a shout.

"Mm hm." Agumon nodded in agreement and Tai's digivice let out a screech. "Agumon digivolve to...Greymon."

Greymon leapt into action and started attacking the Tyrannomon. The flying digimon, which consisted of Kuwagamon, Snimon, Unimon, Flymon and many Bakemon, started to strike the digidestined below.

"Aerial attack!" One of the Unimon screamed as it shot an energy ball straight for Izzy.

"Ahhh!" Izzy yelled in surprise as the energy ball came straight for him. just then a screech came from his digivice.

"Tentomon digivolve to...Kabuterimon"

Kabuterimon's electro shocker took care of that threat and he leaped into the sky to ward off the flying digimon. Biyomon, followed that same idea and digivolved into Birdramon and started to attack the flying digimon.

"Where are you, Vexilmon?" TK shouted above the battle noise. "I know your here."

You assume well, keeper of hope. Vexilmon's sly psychic voice said. Faster than the blink of an eye, Vexilmon came into view from behind the Tyrannomon.

"What the heck is that blob thing?" Tai yelled

Ah, you must be the ones who defeated my colleague's, the Dark Masters. I have been waiting to meet you for a very long time. As your inferior second group already knows, I am Vexilmon. Vexilmon said almost politely.

"We're not going to let you do what the Dark Masters did to the digital world." Mimi said, remembering how the dark masters had killed so many of her digimon friends. "Palmon, get him."

"Palmon digivolve to...Togemon."

Oh, I'm so scared. As if I'm going to get beaten by a plant. Venom explosion.

Togemon was shot with acid before she could even move and instantly dedigivolved.

"I'm sorry Mimi, but he's drained all my power." Palmon sadly said

"It's OK." Mimi said, running to hold her beaten digimon.

TK looked up in hatred at Vexilmon and tightened his hand around his digivice.

"Digi-armor ener-WHOA!" A fireball hit the ground right next to TK as he was saying the digivolving words and was knocked to the ground.

"Howling Blaster"

"Nova Blast"

Garurumon and Greymon attempted to weaken Vexilmon with their attacks, which not only made them turn away from the attacking Tyrannomon, but just made Vexilmon laugh at them.

Your feeble attacks are useless against me Vexilmon said and got ready for another attack.

"Wanna bet?" Davis's voice said

Two pink beams came shooting from the sky and hit Vexilmon square on. Flamedramon came out of the sky and whacked one of the Tyrannomon to the ground. TK picked himself up.

"Digi-armor energize" TK said, now smiling.

"Patamon armor digivolve to...Pegasusmon. Aqueous Beam"

The green energy beam went straight for Vexilmon, but was stopped by an Aerial Attack from one of the Unimon. Nefertimon and Halsemon dropped their passenger onto the ground and speed off. Then the ground started to shake again and the digidestined barely heard the words "Rock Cracking" Before five Tyrannomon fell into the fault line created by Digmon.

"Tempest Wing"

A huge sideways tornado flew and knocked many of the Bakemon out of the sky. Birdramon, who had been temporarily hurt by a Kuwagamon, now used her attack and tried to take out whatever digimon was attacking them. With all this going on, nobody seemed to notice Vexilmon getting ready to attack.

Venom Explosion Vexilmon yelled excitedly as acid shot everywhere. The digimon that were under Vexilmon's control were missed and the acid instead went straight for his opposition. Birdramon, Kabuterimon, Halsemon, Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were all able to avoid being hit since they were in the air. The ground digimon were not so lucky. Greymon, being the slowest and largest, was hit first and went back to Agumon immediately. Digmon was not able to move in time and he too was hit. Garurumon and Flamedramon, however, were able to jump out of the way. With half of the land force down, Vexilmon turned his attention to the air attacks. With the flick of his liquidated hand, every single flying digimon attacked the four digidestined digimon. Needless to say, they were defeated.

"NO!" Yolei screamed as she saw her digimon fall to the ground and revert back to his rookie form.

"Gomomon, you better digivolve!" Joe said to the only digimon there who hadn't digivolved.

"Right, Joe." The small seal digimon said. "Gomomon digivol-OOF!"

Gomomon had been running toward Vexilmon and didn't see the Tyrannomon that came up besides him and whacked Gomomon with his tail. Gomomon rammed into Joe, knocking Gomomon out cold and making Joe fall down.

"How is this possible? We were never this easily defeated before!" Davis yelled at everyone.

Vexilmon laughed in the digidestined's head. The Tyrannomon (now only twenty of them) started to move in for the kill. Garurumon positioned themselves in a defensive pose, ready to fight for their and their friends lives. However, when the Tyrannomon were almost in the position to attack, they stopped abruptly. Everyone looked up at Vexilmon and saw him whipping his head around in anger.

Where are you? Vexilmon screamed to what seemed to be no one in particular. I can sense you just as well as you can sense me. Don't think I don't know your hiding around here.

"You mean you can't sense my _exact_ location" Ken's drawling voice said, coming from the forest next to them. Everyone, including Vexilmon, whipped around to see Ken (or to the older digidestined, Sam) standing on a tree limb, leaning against the trunk.

You are a fool. I can kill you just as easily as your allies.

"Oh really? I see that my allies are as alive as ever, and I am nothing like them. If you to kill me so bad then let's make it an interesting death." Ken said lazily.

I'm listening.

"I challenge you to a shooting game. You start firing at me, and when you hit me, you get me." Ken said evenly

"Is he insane!?" Yolei whispered to Davis.

"We've been fighting him for month's and now you ask that question?" Davis whispered back.

Sound's fun. Now then, let's start...NOW! VENOM EXPLOSION! Vexilmon said, shooting acid straight at Ken. Ken instantly jumped out of the tree and landed gracefully, not even jostling TK's hat that was on his head. Ken started running at the speed he uses when playing soccer. Vexilmon kept firing acid at him, but Ken easily avoided it.

"Is that what you call aiming? A Bukamon could aim better than you." Ken yelled to Vexilmon as he avoided another shot. To make Vexilmon even more angry, Ken stopped and actually waved to him before running again. In that time, Ken caught TK's eye and jerked his head toward an escape route. TK understood and nodded, Ken was distracting Vexilmon so the others could get away. With one quick glance at the inanimate Tyrannomon standing over them, TK started to lead the group away from Vexilmon's reach. Ken on the other hand, was right in the middle of danger, running at top speed.

"What about Sam?" Mimi cried. Kari looked back and abruptly stopped. Ken was slowing down, rapidly.

_"Why is Ken slowing down? He plays soccer all the time and is able to run at that speed for almost an hour." _Kari thought. Then it hit her._ "He's still injured"_

"What does Sam think he's doing?" Tai asked as he ran away. "At the pace he's going, Vexilmon is sure to get him."

Kari turned on her heel and started running toward Ken. Ken stopped running and clutched his side where his wound was.

Well, well. It look's like you're still weak from my last attacks. Good, it will be much easier to capture you now. Vexilmon laughed.

"I'll never submit to the likes of you." Ken snarled.

Too bad. You would have made a wonderful pet. Vexilmon said in an amused voice. Venom Explosion.

Acid shot straight for Ken, but the pain from his injuries made him unable to move. Just as it was about to hit him, Kari jump-tackled Ken to the ground. Ken then heard a pain-staking scream and smelled burning flesh.

"Ahhh! It hurts, it hurts!" Kari screamed, weeping in pain. Ken looked and saw Vexilmon's acid bubbling on her arm. Blood could be seen running down Kari's arm.

"You...you fool! What were you thinking." Ken said, shocked, amazed and confused at what just happened.

"I couldn't just stand there and let you die by Vexilmon's hands." Kari said clenching her teeth in anguish.

Poor, poor fools. This should teach you a lesson, never defy Vexilmon. HAHAHA. Vexilmon laughed in everyone's head, then sped off through the air, still laughing.

Everyone ran over to Kari. Yolei, who had gloves on, attempted to whack off the acid.

"How were we able to be defeated?" Davis asked Ken. Ken snapped out of his trance of glaring at Vexilmon's retreating self and turned to glower daggers at Davis.

"You underestimated the powers of darkness. Never do that...never." Ken said.

"But how are we going to defeat him if has this much power?" Davis said worriedly.

"If I knew, do you really think I would have saved you're pathetic lives?" Ken whispered angrily.

Davis turned his attention back to Kari and for the first time in his life, Davis felt fear.


	9. Discovery

Chapter 9

"Kari, do you realize how lucky you are?" Joe asked as he wrapped a bandage around her arm. "The pH level, the acidity, of that acid was incredible. If Yolei hadn't taken it off when she had, your arm may very well have just been bone by now."

Kari shuddered as that image popped into her head. Kari, Yolei, Mimi, Joe, TK and Tai were in the kitchen of the base with their digimon. Kari had her eyes closed in pain as Mimi and Yolei her arm still. Vexilmon's attack had given Kari second degree burns that covered her arm.

"Done" Joe said triumphantly and Kari opened her eyes. "Try not to jostle your arm too much, but it should be all healed in a week or so."

"A week!" Tai said, sounding devastated.

"It's all right Tai. We'll think of an excuse to tell Mom." Kari comforted her brother.

"It's not just that. I'm worried about everyone's safety. I thought you said Vexilmon wasn't very strong?" Tai said to his sister.

"He didn't seem very strong before. I guess I was wrong." Kari said sorrowfully

"Listen Tai; standing around isn't going to defeat Vexilmon." Joe said, putting a hand on Tai's shoulder. "Come on, you can talk to Matt about a plan. I know he could use a break from Davis and his plan's."

Joe led Tai out the door. TK looked back at Kari.

"I guess I should go too. If you need me, I'll probably be holding Matt back from punching Davis in annoyance. See you later." TK said and also walked out. The remaining girls in the room sighed.

"What a day! First I get pulled into the digital world and then ambushed by the last of the Dark Masters." Mimi said. "Good thing that boy Sam was there." She smiled. "Or is it Ken?"

Gatomon, who had been drinking some water, choked and started to cough.

"How did...what are..." Yolei stammered

"Just a hunch. There aren't many Japanese digidestined who can run that fast." Mimi looked at the nervous faces in front of her. "Don't worry, no one else has figured it out yet. You did a good job of disguising him, and his identity is safe with me. But I hope you know what you're doing by hiding the Kaiser."

"Mimi, why didn't you tell me?" Palmon said, looking a bit betrayed.

"Sorry Palmon, I wasn't sure until now." Mimi smiled "By the way, where is he?"

"Beats me. I don't think Ken liked the fact his enemy's have now saved him three times" Yolei said, all nervousness melting off her face as she smiled slyly.

"Yeah, but now we're in his debt. Without him doing that insane stunt, we'd have never made it out of the plains alive." Kari said. "Maybe he actually care's about us."

"Yeah, or maybe he was lonely all by himself." Yolei joked and they all burst into laughter at the thought of Ken actually being lonely.

*An hour later*

TK and Kari were sitting by a window that showed the huge shaft of the engine room.

"I'm sorry." TK said suddenly.

"For what?" Kari asked, confused.

"I should have been the one to get hurt, not you." TK said frustrated.

"Are you still thinking about that? We have more important thing's to worry about. Labor Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow; it's a national holiday. If we don't beat Vexilmon by that time, our parents are going to worry about our whereabouts." Kari suggested.

"That doesn't give us much time, does it?" TK laughed sadly

"No, it doesn't. But I think we can do it." Kari gave a feeble smile. Just then, They both heard running footsteps. TK and Kari turned their heads to see Davis coming at them at top speed. Davis slid to a halt in front of where the two were sitting.

"We have to get to the control room now." Davis said, breathing heavily.

"Why?" TK asked, confused.

"Your brothers are getting ready to beat Ken into a pulp." Davis said to them both.

TK was up instantly and running next to Davis up the stairs.

"What happened!?" TK said.

"They found out about him."

"Davis, what did you do?"

"Hey, not everything's my fault" Davis huffed. "It seems your half brother didn't like the fact that someone else besides you was wearing your hat. So Matt flipped the hat off Ken's head before he could move, and that showed that blue hair of his. I think you can guess what happened next."

Davis and TK ran through the hall and soon they saw the control room. Inside, Tai and Mat were trying to swipe punches at Ken as Sora looked on. Cody was just standing there next to Izzy, who was holding his arm, while Joe was keeping Yolei back from assisting Ken and Mimi was nowhere in sight. Ken was easily able to dodge the punches due to the fact he had many years of training in the Japanese form of self-defense, Judo.

"I thought I smelled a scumbag." Tai snarled at Ken. "I just didn't think you'd take them with you."

Tai pointed at Yolei, who was struggling against Joe's group, yelling at them to stop fighting. Joe and Izzy didn't look too happy about holding their comrades and friends back.

"You seriously believe that, don't you?" Ken said, also snarling as he dodged a right hook. "You even stupider than I gave you credit for."

Unfortunately, that statement made Tai snap and he ran straight for Ken, fist back, ready to punch Ken into the next world. Ken nimbly sidestepped, grabbed hold of Tai's arm when he jabbed his fist out and twisted it around to his back. Ken then used his other arm to put Tai in a headlock and kicked his legs out from underneath him, making Tai fall to the ground. This was all done in a matter of seconds and with amazing precision. Ken took a step backward to get into a fighting stance, but Matt came from the side and punched Ken in the face with all his strength. Ken immediately fell to the ground with a split lip. Matt then started punching Ken multiple times in the gut. Tai picked himself up and joined in the punching. Ken was trapped under them both and had no way of getting out. Tai and Matt were just about to punch him at the same time when TK and Davis decided to intervene and tackle both of them away from Ken.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Matt yelled at TK as he pinned him down. "Don't you realize who that is!?"

"YES! Now calm down!" TK said

"You traitor!" Tai yelled and tried to throw Davis off.

"QUIET!" A voice said. Everyone turned to see Mimi standing with Kari. "No one's betrayed anyone. And if you hadn't acted like hotheaded apes you would have realized that."

Not one of the digidestined had ever heard Mimi talk like that to her friends. They all looked at her in awe while Ken got up and looked in hatred at the two that had been beating on him.

"I'm sure that they can explain everything" Mimi said, indicating the younger digidestined. "There's no need for fighting right now, especially since we're all on the same side when it comes to battling Vexilmon."

Sora could feel the tension vibrating through the room. As she looked on, Sora watched Yolei wrench herself out of Joe's, ran up to Ken and whispered something to him. Ken nodded, turned on his heel and walked swiftly out of the room with Yolei flanking him.

"All right. Start spilling." Matt said.

*In Ken's quarters*

"Great." Ken said sarcastically. "Another injury to add to my collection."

He took a wash cloth put some water on it and started wiping the blood from his lower lip.

"Sorry." Was all Yolei could say.

"I told you this would happen" Ken said angrily. "But does anyone listen to the genius? No."

"Look, you aren't exactly the most respected person, OK. We all thought you were mad because they would be another setback to your plans once Vexilmon was destroyed."

"And yet you did not foresee this fight? I was only disguised with a freakin' hat and sunglasses." Ken said. He finished with his lip and washed out the cloth. Ken then lifted up his shirt a little to see if any damage had been done to his side injury, not caring that Yolei was in the room too.

"I did try to help." Yolei said sincerely. "But you saw how Joe was keeping me back. I bet if Tai hadn't yelled at him to do it, Joe would never have even laid a finger on me." Yolei sighed. "Do you think they've explained the situation yet?"

"It's a possibility. Why?" Ken asked, tucking his shirt back in.

"Well, if they are done, then we can make amends." Yolei smiled. She walked out of the room. Ken shook his head, sighed and walked out of the room behind her. As they got closer, Ken and Yolei heard the voices of Kari and TK.

"We need his help and he need's ours. Please try to understand." Kari said.

"Not to mention the fact that Ken saved all our lives." TK said.

Tai looked at his sister in a skeptical face.

"You do realize you're defending your enemy, right?" Tai said.

"What better way to defeat darkness than with darkness." Cody answered metaphorically. They all heard footsteps and looked up to see Ken walking slowly toward them with a neutral look on his face. Tai walked over and stared at him, as though sizing Ken up.

"I can't trust you or forget about what you're doing." Tai said slowly. Ken stared back blankly. "But... we are allied for now, and I will accept that. Truce?" 

Tai reluctantly held his hand out. Ken looked at it for a second, then grabbed it and quickly shook it.

"You've got it." Ken said in a flat voice.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Everyone, listen." TK said. "We need to figure out exactly how to defeat Vexilmon, or we don't stand a chance against another attack like the one in the plains."

"Humph." Ken snorted. "Vexilmon's not going to kill you"

"Really?" Davis said in sarcastic enthusiasm. "Then explain every attack we had."

Ken looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You _did_ notice how he fled every time too, right?" He said "Vexilmon knows we'll never defeat him. So he's using a strategy worse that quickly killing us. He's tormenting us, teasing us, demoralizing our spirits."

"I guess that makes sense." Tai said. "But how would _you_ know that that's what Vexilmon's doing?"

Ken gave his usual half smile.

"I did that all the time to you digidestined. I'm sure Davis remembers that time when we first got 'aquatinted' how I had chained him to the cliff wall. I could've easily have killed him or destroyed his digivice. However, tormenting and torture usually is much more fun and rewarding."

"Just what I wanted to hear." Davis said very sarcastically. "But we have to defeat Vexilmon, and I doubt playing his game is going to work."

"So what? We're not going to defeat him by sitting on our butts, waiting for him to show up." Sora said. "I say the best thing to do would be to go after Vexilmon."

Just then, Kari screamed in distress.

"What is it?" Tai asked, immediately at her side.

"The D-terminal. It crashed and there's no way to get to that map of Vexilmon's movements."

Everyone looked at his or her D-terminals. Sure enough, they all said "cannot comply". All of the sudden, the screen went blank and a message showed up.

__

Digidestined,

I hope this computer problem doesn't come as much of a surprise. I was able to transfer this specially programmed virus into your D-3's when your keeper of light was hit by my attack. Don't bother trying to reprogram it, it won't work.

-Vexilmon

"This is not good." Yolei said.

"Without the map, we will have no way of knowing where Vexilmon is." TK said somberly.

"That's where your wrong, Takashi." Ken said. "I can sense Vexilmon's presence if I focus. I can be our map."

"Then we better get going. If we don't get home in about twenty-four hours, our parents will kill us." TK said. "And I really don't want to see my mom when she's angry."

***

Not much was heard, except for the occasional birds singing in the forest. Everyone was incredibly quiet, even Yolei. They all had a feeling of dread as they walked away from safety and into a trap. The people with bags were loaded down with supplies and first aid equipment. Ken, of course, was leading the band with Wormmon at his feet. The digimon refused to be left behind. Ken had electronic items, including a laptop computer, with him and everybody was on high alert. It seemed the slightest sound was making everyone jump. However, after an hour of walking, the idea that they wouldn't get attacked settled in and the group relaxed. The girls even started to hum a popular Japanese song. When all of the sudden, Ken looked up and stopped abruptly. Davis crashed into TK who knocked into Tai who whacked into Ken.

"Ow. Hey, why'd you stop?" Tai said.

"Silence. Something's wrong. It's too quiet here. I'm trying to figure out if Vexilmon's here or not." Ken said sharply

Everyone looked around. A buzzing noise was faintly heard, but then it got louder and louder.

"Get down NOW!" Joe shouted.

"Twin Sickles." A Snimon yelled as it came into view. A dark ring was around its waist. The two pink beams shot toward them, but missed and knocked down a tree. Tai jumped back up, but by that time, Snimon was gone.

"Huh? That was weird." He said.

"Yolei? Yolei!" Hawkmon cried. "Oh no, she's gone."

"What? How?" Izzy asked.

"That Snimon must have grabbed her before she was able to duck." Tai said angrily.

Davis's face hardened and he started running in the direction of the Snimon and everyone followed him.

"Davis, wait." Ken yelled after him. "Vexilmon is over two miles from here. There's no way he could've controlled that digimon. Something's wrong."

"Then we'll have to find out what that is." Davis called over his shoulder and continued running. Davis left the group in his dust as he barreled down at top speed into the forest, with Veemon right behind him. Ken thanked the god's for his blessed gift of speed and was easily able to pass everyone else and catch up with Davis, leaving Wormmon to Kari.

"I have a question." Mimi said in an exhausted voice as she slowed down. Running was not her thing. "Why are we following those two? I mean, why not let Birdramon fly at least one of us to catch up with them."

"Mimi does have a point. Not all of us can run well and we should stop those two from getting completely lost or killing each other." Izzy said.

"Oh fine. Hey Biyomon, up for a little digivolving?" Sora said and Biyomon nodded. Her digivice let out a screech and Biyomon started to digivolve.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, Ken caught up with Davis and was running along side with him.

"You're an idiot, you know." Ken said, easily jogging in sync with Davis. "First off, you don't even know where to look, and second, one armor digimon isn't going to stop or even hold off Vexilmon."

"Shut up Ken. You're getting on my nerves. And hey, how'd you catch up to me so fast. I left you in the dust." Davis said annoyed at the fact that Ken was right.

"You forget, I'm the 'Rocket'. There was a reason why I beat you so badly in soccer. Your only going at half the speed I usually go."

"Humph." Davis huffed and went back to running in silence. Ken laughed at Davis's envy as he ran. The thick forest suddenly opened up into a clearing. In the middle of it, a figure stood with it's back turned; lavender hair could be seen hanging down from underneath the helmet it wore. Both Ken and Davis stopped running when they saw the figure.

"Yolei!" Davis said and started walking to her. He was roughly pulled back by his shirt collar.

"Hey," Davis exclaimed. "What's the big idea?"

"Haven't you heard of the phrase fool's rush in where angel's fear to tread? It's probably a trap." Ken said sharply.

"As a matter of fact, I have. Geez, between you, Izzy and Cody, it's like we have a walking philosophy book." Davis said, annoyed. Ken was about to make a snide remark when Yolei turned around and walked up to them.

"Hello Davis." Yolei said, looking at him. She then turned her head to look at Ken. "Hello Kaiser."

"What the..." Ken said. Yolei never called him Kaiser, none of them did. However, it was too late. "Yolei" took her arm and grabbed Davis's throat, lifting him up with the strength no twelve year old girl should have. Davis started choking instantly, unable to get air. "Yolei" threw him to the ground and Davis gasped and coughed while clutching his neck. The fake Yolei started moving toward Ken with a malicious look on her face.

"Davis? If there were ever a time for your digimon to digivolve, now would be it." Ken yelled at the fallen Davis as he backed up. Davis stood up, but was still coughing and unable to say the digivolving words. Ken started to get into a fighting stance.

"Poison Ivy." A voice said from the sky.

"Whoa." Ken cried as vines wrapped around his, Davis's and Veemon's waist. The vines then lifted all three of them up and they landed on one of Birdramon's talons. Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were on both sides of Birdramon with their partners.

"Welcome back, you guys." Mimi smiled. "We thought you could use a hand."

"Or vine." Palmon said as she unraveled her vines from the boy's waists.

"I never realized Yolei was that strong...or evil." Tai said densely.

"That's no Yolei!" Sora exclaimed. They all looked down. "Yolei" was looking up at the digidestined with a scowl on her face. As if on cue, the fraud Yolei turned back into the Bakemon she really was. The digidestined saw that the Bakemon had a dark ring on its waist as it sped away.

"A Bakemon touched me? How disgusting." Davis said in a raspy voice.

"Follow him." Ken ordered.

"Tentomon, find out where that Bakemon's going." Izzy said.

"Right." Tentomon said and buzzed down into the forest in hot pursuit of the ghost digimon.

"Hey guy's? What's that splotch in the sky? It seems to be getting bigger." TK said, afraid of the answer.

"Vexilmon, and he's coming at us fast." Ken said without even looking up.

"WHAT!!!" Everyone yelled. Birdramon tried to land, but a bunch of Airdramon with dark rings on them came up from behind and knocked the digidestined to the ground and making the digimon dedigivolve. When the digidestined looked up, Vexilmon was towering over them in mid-air, Yolei being held by her neck in his hand and a look of sheer terror etched on her face. Like before, around twenty Tyrannomon surrounded and trapped them.

You would think that after a near death experience, a person would take a hint and give up. Vexilmon's mocking thought-voice said. I'm sure, Kaiser, that you are surprised that I was able to control digimon, even thought I was not in range. Those rings of yours are useful... after I reprogrammed them, of course.

"How dare you use my technology against me." Ken said angrily.

Well, I don't see anyone stopping me, now do I. He said, amused. This made Ken incredibly angry.

"Who do you think you are, Vexilmon!?" Ken screamed at the acid digimon.

I am your executioner. The question is, who are you? You are no dark digimon, like me. Yet you are also no digidestined. You have no crest and you toil with darkness. Those traits a digidestined do not make. Vexilmon said, tightening his grip on Yolei's neck. Is it possible your brother was the true chosen one?

Ken didn't care about how Vexilmon could know he had a brother.

"My brother was a selfish, always in the spotlight, super smart brat." Ken scowled. "But he's dead now, thanks to me. Don't you dare talk about him with me."

You stole his digivice, then killed him. You broke you promise of not touching it and because of that, you paid with his life.

I've broken a lot of promises from him." Ken yelled angrily. "He always wanted me to be a kind person, but hey, guess what? I'm the digimon Kaiser."

"Tha...that's not true, Ken." Yolei gasped from Vexilmon's choking grip. "You're still kind. If you weren't, we would all be dead now."

"You could've handled well without me."

"Ken, without your help, we wouldn't have been able to get out of the plains alive." Kari said.

"And without your kindness, we would have never been as safe as we were when you protected us in your base." TK said.

"You're are kind." Sora said and Ken held his head in mental anguish as Vexilmon looked on, entertained.

"You can still be good" Matt's voice said

"Ken?" Voices at a distance said.

Ken looked around at the faces in confusion.

__

"Why did I care about what happened to them" Ken thought.

"Ken!?"

__

"My brother may have been digidestined, but why did the digivice react to me."

"Ken!" More voices.

__

"Wormmon has been with me from the beginning, no matter what I did. He cared when Sam didn't."

"Help us!"

__

"But Sam did care. He wanted me to be a kind person and I let him down."

"It's now or never." The voices cried

__

"I'm not going to let my brother's memories be thrown away in vain!" Ken thought in determination.

Suddenly, a bright light shot from Ken's digivice. The light actually started to mold and shape into what looked like a crest. When the light died down, everyone could see it was a crest, and it had a strange design on it. The crest floated down and gently landed in Ken's palm.

"What's this?" Ken asked to nobody.

"It's your crest, Ken." Wormmon said in a voice so that Vexilmon couldn't hear him. "It's the crest of kindness. Now I can digivolve."

Ken clenched the crest in a tight fist. He looked at him partner, then at Vexilmon.

"You should have never come out of hiding, Vexilmon." Ken said softly but sternly. "And I plan to send you back from which you came."

Oh really? And just how do you plan to that with you silly crest.

Ken had a determined look on his face, and when he looked at his partner, Wormmon had and even more determined look. Ken held the crest between his two fingers.

"Wormmon! Digivolve!" Ken cried.

Author's quick note: Labor Thanksgiving day really is a holiday for Japan. It happens around November and I estimated that was around the time of Chimeramon's battle.


	10. Power of courage

Chapter 10

The crest glowed. Wormmon could feel the energy that he thought he would never feel ever since the days with Ryo run through him again. He started to glow as Ken's digivice light up and gave off a loud, high-pitched screech that signaled the digivolving process.

"Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon" Wormmon said joyously.

There, standing in front of everyone, was a huge humanoid bug with dragonfly wings coming out its back.

"Whoa" Veemon said. "Who's this?"

"Meet Stingmon. This bug digimon is fast and agile when he wants to be. Don't make him mad though. He's attacks, spiking strike and spinning spiking strike, will make you wish you were being stung by a swarm of bee's." Ken said simply.

So, your worm can digivolve. You'll need more than a fly to beat me. Vexilmon laughed.

"A fly!? I'll show you a fly. Spiking Strike!" Stingmon said, outraged. Two sharp, glowing stingers came out of Stingmon's armor and he struck Vexilmon's wrist with lightning speed. This made Vexilmon drop Yolei, who was caught by Matt.

What? How can he hurt me!! Vexilmon yelled angrily, holding his wrist.

"My attack may be physical, but my stingers are created from energy. So in a way, I have a beam attack." Stingmon said. If he could smile, Stingmon most certainly would be.

Arrgh! Vexilmon exclaimed in irritation. He then lifted his hand and snapped his liquidated fingers. All the controlled digimon started to attack.

Ha! You think you're so slick. You have no idea of what I'm capable of. Vexilmon said and whacked Stingmon with his hand, making Stingmon fall to the ground. Vexilmon then floated a little higher to survey the battle. He snapped his fingers again and around a hundred ringed Snimon came up from the woods, twenty surrounding Vexilmon, the rest attacking head on. All the digidestined looked to their partners.

"Digivolve!"

The air filled with digivolution sounds and the now champion digimon or armor digimon leapt into battle. Izzy looked on, with the hope Tentomon would be coming back soon.

"Get Vexilmon. He's the target, not some ringed digimon!" Davis yelled at the digidestined's digimon. Flamedramon kicked away an attacking Tyrannomon and leapt into the sky.

"Fire Rocket!" Flamedramon said and his body became encased in flames. He was going to take out the Snimon that protected Vexilmon so the others could get clear shots. However, Vexilmon had other plans.

Venom Explosion. He said and a ball of acid came shooting at Flamedramon and whacked him right in the stomach. Davis caught Veemon before he hit the ground.

"Oh man. Not again." Davis said, exasperated. He looked around and his eyes fell on Ken. Stingmon was standing next to the Kaiser, looking at the battle. Ken, on the other hand, was punching some buttons on a small electronic device. Davis was infuriated.

"What do you think your doing!?" Davis yelled. "This isn't the time to be playing games."

"Patience. Good things always come in small packages." Ken said, barely acknowledging Davis, who was running up to him.

"Small packages my-"

"Perfect." Ken interrupted Davis from swearing. "All right Stingmon. You'll have one shot, that's all. Can you do it?"

"Yes, Ken." Stingmon replied

"Good." Ken said, pressing the small gadget into Stingmon's hand. "And remember, aim for the body."

"That digimon is going down. Don't worry, Ken." Stingmon said as he leapt into the air. Stingmon easily avoided the many attacks thrown at him as he made his way towards Vexilmon.

"Twin Sickles." The Snimon said and around forty pink scythes were shot at Stingmon. Stingmon, having great speed, zipped upward and all the scythes missed.

"You'll need more than fly's to defeat Stingmon." Ken called from the ground, mocking Vexilmon's earlier statement. In response, two Tyrannomon shot at him, who made Ken run out of the way; smiling.

"Hey Vexilmon, catch." Stingmon said. He threw the small device over the Snimon and straight towards Vexilmon. Vexilmon quickly caught it in his hand.

What is this? A child's game? If you think you're going to stop me with this, you are pathetic. Vexilmon laughed as he looked at the item. Ken took out a similar device from his pocket.

"You're not even close to the truth." Ken said and pressed a button. The device Vexilmon was holding started to beep.

Are you trying to scare me with little sounds? Because it isn't working. Vexilmon said. He was about to throw an acid ball at Stingmon when it happened. A huge blue beam came out of nowhere and hit Vexilmon straight on. Vexilmon screamed bloody murder as the beam propelled him away. A huge spurt of acid fell down as Vexilmon was hit and disintegrated into dust. Stingmon watched as the beam sent Vexilmon flying for what must have been more than a mile before it dissipated and stopped. Vexilmon took off; a small stream of acid dripping out of him. As Stingmon descended, most of the digimon that had been attacking were just getting their rings broken off and the digidestined were looking at Ken for an explanation. Ken looked incredibly happy for a person who is usually always angry.

"Yes! It worked." Ken said with enthusiasm none of the digidestined had ever seen. "And I thought my computer couldn't handle those power levels. How fortunate that I was wrong."

"Ken? Explain." Tai said.

"It's quite simple, if you think about it." Ken said. "I had created a program that modified the power cells that are scattered around my base, connecting to the main energy source. The modifications made the base practically become a floating laser pen. The device Vexilmon held was a locating device and this," Ken held out his gadget, "is the triggering mechanism. Once Vexilmon was in possession of the locating device, I was able to lock on to his location and zap him. Unfortunately, my computer can only handle one shot or it will short circuit and who knows where that beam would go."

"Now what?" Cody asked. "Are we going to follow Vexilmon or what?"

"Well... I think our best bet would be to-" Tai stopped contemplating the situation when he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, get back here, you! Come on, I only want to talk. Here boy, I got a treat for you." Tentomon coaxed desperately as he chased the still ringed Bakemon straight toward the group. The Bakemon didn't say anything, but he did seem to have an irritated look on his face. When the Bakemon saw that he was trapped, he turned around, ready to attack. Tai jumped up and pinned the Bakemon to the ground.

"Mind helping me, someone." Tai said, trying to hold the struggling Bakemon. Ken walked up calmly and did something to the ring that made it unhinge from around the digimon's waist. The Bakemon instantly stopped struggling and Tai got off of it. Ken held the ring to the sky to look at it while the Bakemon flew away.

"That piece of garbage." Ken stated as he studied the ring. "Vexilmon completely wiped out the controlling program and put his own in. And to make matters worse, it can easily be transferred from one ring to another. Who knows how many digimon have dark rings on that aren't under my control."

"This usually would be the time where I'd say it's your own fault. However, we have bigger fish to fry and I want to get out of here before Vexilmon sends anymore of his minions." Yolei said.

"It will get dark soon. We should keep walking until then, and then set up camp. I doubt that Vexilmon would bother coming after us since we injured him so much, though I am concerned about his ringed slaves. Ken? Do you think you could figure out where Vexilmon's hiding?" Matt said.

"He's most definitely heading north- northwest. That's probably where he's living. It's a good chance that if we ambush him there, he will be caught off guard and be unable to fend with his slaves. Though, the trip might take a long time." Ken said, still looking at the ring, close to pouting.

"We have to be prepared to fight more slaves. If anything, we can't be surprised by whatever may be thrown at us." Tai said, making a fist.

Ken started walking away silently, his valued dark ring in his hand. Everyone else nodded in agreement with Tai and started to follow Ken.

***

"Rations, the dinner of champions." Matt joked as the digimon jumped on one of the bags, almost ripping it to shreds as they grabbed the food. As the sun settled behind the mountains of the digital world, the group decided to set up camp. The digidestined hadn't run into any trouble ever since the battle with Vexilmon. Joe was the one that suggested they stop, and no one complained, though Ken didn't see why they should rest.

"Yogurt!"

"Tuna!"

"Potato salad!"

The digimon rattled off the different food's Joe had brought with him from the real world. Soon, all the digidestined were around the fire, except for Ken.

"Yo dude! Don't just stand there. Sit with us." Davis said to the young Kaiser, ignorant to the surprised looks he was getting from the older digidestined.

"I don't believe it's customary to dine with your enemies." Ken said, giving Davis an odd look.

"Well, it's not customary for an eleven-year-old Japanese kid to become the next Hitler, but there you are." Davis counteracted in a teasing voice. "You know the rules, you have to be at least fourteen before you can have devious thoughts and twenty before you can have world domination. But since you're the exception, I think it's OK for you to join us."

Ken raised an eyebrow as everyone cracked a rib from holding back laughter. Davis then came up, clapped Ken on the shoulder and steered him toward the group. Ken was still looking at Davis weirdly as he grabbed an apple and sat down far enough away to not be part of the group, but close enough that he wasn't disowned.

"You are one really strange person, Motamiya." Ken said, and for some reason, that made everyone burst into laughter.

Once dinner was finished, there was the question of who would stand guard.

"It'll go from oldest to youngest. Joe, you're first." Tai said to the group of males standing around him. 

"I don't want to be first. You know I'm no good at standing watch." Joe complained.

"How about Davis?" Matt said

"I need my sleep! You go." Davis exclaimed.

"There's no way I'm going to be the one responsible if everyone get eaten."

"Oh for the love of the god's. I'll stand guard." Ken said, entering the argument. "I wouldn't trust any of you watch a newt, let alone Vexilmon or an enslaved digimon."

With that, Ken started to climb the tree with some difficulty, since he only had one good arm. Everyone looked on.

"Okay, I'm not sure if I should thank him for volunteering or yell at him for insulting us." TK said as watched Ken settle himself on a high branch.

"Thinking about it makes my head hurt." Davis said. "Let's go to sleep before we can't see an inch in front of us."

They all walked back to the fire, arguing about who will sleep where and with whom.

Crack! The fire startled Izzy from sleep. He turned to see the digimon Kaiser kneeling by it, poking the wood with a long stick.

"You're still up? Don't you ever sleep?" Izzy said in a quiet, tired voice.

"I'm used to being up late working on projects. It took me the course of forty-eight straight hours to perfect the dark rings and another day to construct the towers. I can handle a few sleepless nights, believe me." Ken said, putting his hands close to the heat.

"Did anything happen while we were asleep?" Izzy asked, all sleep out of his voice.

"No."

"Oh."

They watched the flames in silence, neither one wanting to talk to their enemy. Absent-mindedly, Izzy reached over, grabbed the dark ring from the pile of bags and started looking at it. This was the first time Izzy had ever seen an intact ring off a digimon.

"This is written in digicode, isn't it?" Izzy asked, curious.

"Yes, it was the only way to make them work." Ken said proudly.

"And you can decipher the hieroglyphs?"

"Of course. Can't you?" Ken snubbed.

"I've tried for years. But by doing so, I've been able to learn a lot about the digital world." Izzy explained

"What are you talking about? The digital program is only on my computer. I'm still trying to understand how you opened a gate without my PC."

"Wait a second. Are you telling me that you think this is a program?" Izzy asked, shocked.

"Well isn't it?" Ken said

"No! Geez, this changes everything! I thought you knew but you haven't got a clue. The digital world is real and so are digimon." Izzy said, stunned by what Ken just said.

"There's no way... It's impossible." Ken said stubbornly with a hint of anger in his voice.   
"If they aren't real, than how are they able to come into the real world?" Izzy asked, trying to make Ken understand. Izzy couldn't see the Kaiser's face, but from the dragging silence, he could tell Ken was thinking about the question.

"How about this." Izzy proposed, "Give us a chance and I promise you that things will change. We don't want to fight you, especially us older kids."

"And why should I?" Ken said, seeming annoyed.

"Because, whether you'd like to admit it of not, your one of us. That crest of Kindness is yours. That makes you digidestined." Izzy smiled.

"This crest can't be mine." Ken said, taking it out of his pocket. "The only reason it appeared was to help Wormmon digivolve. The trait definitely doesn't fit me and besides, I'm on the side with darkness, remember."

"Ironic, isn't it?" Izzy said. He laid back down and closed his eyes. "The evil digimon Kaiser is the bearer of kindness. I guess Genni has a sense of humor after all."

Silence was the only response.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you. How far will it take to get to Vexilmon?

"Around four hours. And knowing our adversary, we're bound to run into more controlled digimon than we can count."

"Well then, I guess we should get to sleep. Think about my offer, it's your choice" Izzy said, turning to a more comfortable position. Soon, his breathing became slow and steady, a sure sign that he was asleep. Ken looked once again at the fire, rubbed his eyes and opened his battery-run laptop.

***

Yolei was the first to wake. She carefully maneuvered herself out of the blanket that covered both her and Mimi and stood up. Each blanket held two people; both were the same sex. Yolei smiled as she remembered the argument from last night. It started with Davis wanting to sleep with Kari, but Tai wouldn't let him. After a long, pointless argument, Sora decided that boys would sleep with boys and girls with girls. Yolei looked around, wondering if she should wake her friends, when her eyes drifted to a figure to the right of her. There, perpendicular to the others was Ken, lying on his back with his hands resting on his chest, eyes closed and using his closed laptop as a headrest. Yolei suddenly got the zoned out look in her eyes and she moved over there. She kneeled at the side of the Kaiser and slowly her hand went toward him. However, Ken woke up before Yolei could get near enough to him. Ken's eyes snapped open and he grabbed her arm and twisted it around to her back, not even looking at who it was.

"OW OW OW! Ken it's me!" Yolei cried, snapping out of her trance.

"What the... Inoue?" Ken said, surprised as he released her arm. "What do you think you're doing? I could've broken your arm!"

"I realize that." Yolei said as she massaged her arm.

"Don't do that again." Ken scolded, rubbing his forehead. "If something comes at me while I'm asleep, I react. What were you doing anyway?"

Yolei hesitated, thinking of what she _had_ been going to do.

"I'm not sure. I remember looking around, then spotting you. After that, I don't remember until you were about to bust my arm." Yolei said, confused about her answer.

"Ken narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but decided not to pursue it. As Ken stood up, Davis let out a moan.

"It's too early to be yelling" Davis groaned. "Can't you wake up like normal people?"

"What, at noon?" Yolei shot back, but Davis had already gone back to sleep. "Grrr. Ken, give me your whip. I'll show him how normal people feel when they've just woken up."

"I've a better idea. Why don't you go take out the breakfast food, while I try to pick up on Vexilmon?" Ken said, stretching his tired muscles. Yolei gave him an annoyed look, but she complied. Ken then turned to the other's and a small, amused smile appeared on his face. He put his finger to his lips as he had done to call his digimon and an incredibly loud whistle came from his lips. He watched as everyone who had been sleeping peacefully suddenly bolted up with extremely tired looks on their faces. Ken walked away before they realized what had happened.

After breakfast, the group packed and started on their quest to where Vexilmon was hiding out.

"The location I pinpointed this morning must be where Vexilmon is hiding. However, there is a complication that I believe you all should know about." Ken explained as they walked through the forest.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked.

Ken let out a small sigh, then continued talking.

"The signal of Vexilmon has completely disappeared. I'm simply following a weak and old signal, which was Vexilmon's last location."

It took a minute for everyone to comprehend that.

"Are you telling us that we're on a wild goose chase!?" Mimi asked, bewildered.

"NO! At least I hope not." Ken said with defiance.

At that moment, everyone started arguing.

"Hey, HEY! Stop it, people." Tai said loudly. Everyone turned to look at him as Tai leaned against a tree, facing the group. "We're to close for our emotions to get the better of us. Now then. Ken, how certain are you that we aren't on a false lead?"

"Do you not trust my judgment?" Ken said angrily.

"We have to." Tai said, annoyed.

"Then we are on the right track."

"Good, that settles it." Tai said. He gave one of his friendly smiles, when out of the blue, everyone heard a high voice.

"SUPER BLADE!"

A long, narrow sword came from behind the majority of the group and flew between Kari and Davis. The blade barely missed Davis's ear and landed on the tree Tai was leaning on. A small lock of Tai's brown hair fell from where the sword landed. Tai's eyes widened to dinner plates as he turned his head to see the shiny blade next to him with a small, narrow handle at the end.

"My hair! My beautiful hair." Tai cried.

The bushes rustled and up jumped a white porcupine with blades for quills. A dark ring was around the digimon's wrist.

"Hello. My name is Blademon. I may look small, but my super blade attack will turn you into a shish kabob." The little digimon said.

"Great, the first defense of Vexilmon." Ken said.

"How do you know it isn't one of yours?" Davis asked.

"Easy. Mine won't attack anyone if I'm with him or her."

"That's right, Kaiser. I'm with master Vexilmon, and I have orders. So without further ado... Super Blade!" Blademon exclaimed. He grabbed a blade from his back and threw it with great precision. It went straight for Davis's head. Davis was too shocked to say the digivolving words and everyone else couldn't move in time. The blade sped towards Davis and he screamed. Davis's digivice glowed and screeched.

"Veemon digivolve to... Ex-Veemon"

When Davis didn't feel any metal pierce his skull, he looked up. An inch from his face, Blademon's sword was pointed at him, Ex-Veemon holding the end and giving Davis a big dragon-like smile. Davis looked at the blade, shaking and stuttering as it was lowered.

"Whoa! Cool digimon Davis." TK said, impressed. Davis was still in shock of what just happened. Yolei stomped over to Davis and flicked him on his head.

"Don't pass out on me now. We still have a digimon to free." Yolei said.

Blademon raised his arm to throw another blade, but Ex-Veemon stopped him.

"Vee-punch." Ex-Veemon yelled and Blademon was thrown into a tree. Blademon then tried to jump on Ex-Veemon but wasn't able to get too far.

"Vee-Laser!" Ex-Veemon said and the X on his stomach glowed and an X shaped laser came out and threw Blademon against the tree again. With Blademon injured, Hawkmon, who was closest, attacked the dark ring with his "Feather Buzz saw." The ring cracked and turned to dust. Blademon shook his head and ran away. Davis stood and admired his champion digimon.

"Wow, a flying blue dragon. That is so COOL!" Davis yelled. Ex-Veemon gave him a big smile before dedigivolving back into Veemon.

"I did it! I did it! I did it!" Veemon said, jumping up and down.

"That was very good, Davis. The laser from Ex-Veemon will benefit us greatly. Unfortunately, we don't have time to celebrate. Let's get Vexilmon's hideout as early as we can." Ken said. "So let's get moving."

"You party-pooper." Davis exclaimed. "Don't you ever have fun?"


	11. digivolving and plants

Authors Notes: Kiwimon's attack I found on an encyclopedia of digimon that has only card attacks. I doubt Kiwimon's attack is right, so please don't kill me (but feel free to e-mail me) if it's wrong.

Chapter 11

"Britney!"

"N'sync!"

"Britney!"

Davis and Yolei argued. So far, the digidestined had been walking for around an hour. For the most part, the only digimon they had encountered had been easily taken out. However, now that it was quiet, Davis and Yolei decided it would be fun to annoy the living hell out of everyone else by arguing which pop band was more popular in America.

"N'sync is by far more popular than Britney Spears." Yolei argued.

"Don't you ever see American advertisements? Blond girl singer's are major these day's." Davis shot back.

"Will you two shut up." Tai said, fed up. "I can't take it any more. Nobody cares about American culture and if I hear one more word of it I'll go on a rampage."

"Fine!" Yolei spat and walked in silence, her arms crossed. Cody took his fingers out of his ears. The peace was comforting, but it didn't last long.

"YOU WILL PERISH!" A female voice said from above. Whatever the thing was, it knocked Matt over and swung away through the trees, laughing.

"Not another one." Matt said from the ground, exasperated.

"You know, we should have a different technique for fighting these slaves. Every time, we wait for them to ambush us. How about we ambush them for once." Sora said.

"Great idea, but we'll never catch up to that digimon now." Tai said.

"So split up into groups." Ken said casually. He was leading and had been quiet all day. "We'll go in groups of two and meet up here. Start the count off." Ken pointed at Davis.

"One."

"Two"

"Three"

"Four"

"Five"

"Six"

Ken pointed at the second half and they rattled off they're numbers

"Six." Ken said, pointing at himself. "OK, that's done with. Now we should meet here."

"Well, we'll need something to mark our meeting place." Izzy said. Everyone turned to look at Davis, or rather his goggles.

"No way! There is no chance that anyone is going to touch these." Davis defended, realizing what the others wanted. After forcefully relinquishing the goggles from Davis and hanging them on a tree, the digidestined split up to go look for the attacking digimon in hopes that they could get this over with as fast as possible. Matt was with Tai, Izzy with Sora, Mimi with TK, Yolei with Joe, Kari with Davis and Cody with Ken. The search was on.

***

"We're lost, aren't we?" Yolei asked Joe.

"Don't be so negative Yolei." Hawkmon said.

"Yeah, we'll find that digimon before anyone else." Gomamon said, smiling.

Yolei smiled down at the two digimon. Then she looked around. The forest became darker and Yolei got a worried look on her face. Just then a branch snapped. Yolei whipped around just in time to see a digimon, which had a red flower for a head and many long vines with mouths on the end for a body, blow some kind of green powder in Joe's face. Joe immediately collapsed.

"Oh no!" Gomamon exclaimed. He rushed over to Joe and caught him. "That's Petuniamon, a plant digimon who is mistaken for Blossomon and can attack you with her vines or her stun pollen."

"Oh god, oh god, oh god! Joe, wake up! PLEASE!" Yolei cried. Petuniamon started to descend on her too, so Yolei opened her D-terminal. "Digi-armor energize."

"Hawkmon armor digivolve to... Halsemon, the wings of love."

Halsemon used his tempest wing and stopped the pollen from reaching Yolei. Halsemon then leapt into the air to use his Hawk's Eye. But Petuniamon took one of his vines and wrapped it around Halsemon's leg. He then proceeded to slam Halsemon into the ground, making him dedigivolve.

"Hawkmon!" Yolei yelled. She opened her D-terminal to bring up her other digi-egg, but a vine from Petuniamon whacked it out of her hand and sent it flying a few feet from her. Petuniamon gave a triumphant smile and started towards Yolei; vines out and ready to attack.

"Noooooo!" Yolei wailed as the plant digimon got closer. Her digivice glowed and Hawkmon stood up. The screech came from the digivice and Hawkmon glowed

"Hawkmon digivolve to... Aquilamon."

Aquilamon tackled Petuniamon away from Yolei.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon said and red loops shot from his mouth. Petuniamon screamed. Then, she tried her stun pollen again, but Aquilamon easily blew it away with the flapping of his wings.

"Grand Horn!" Aquilamon said and butted Petuniamon's dark ring. The ring broke and the digimon slid away. Yolei ran over to Joe.

"Aquilamon! You have to get help! I'm glad you digivolved, but we can't just leave Joe." Yolei cried to her digimon. "Find the closest group and get them here immediately and I'll contact the others through e-mail. I have a feeling Petuniamon wasn't the digimon who knocked Matt down."

"All right." Aquilamon said in his deep voice and flapped away. Yolei started lightly slapping Joe's face, trying to get him to wake up.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Ken and Cody were also scanning for digimon.

"How can we find something if we don't know what it looks like." Cody inquired.

"We could guess." Ken suggested, looking around. Cody looked up at Ken with annoyance. "Oh I see. You don't like the fact that we're stuck together."

"I never said that." Cody huffed angrily

"I can see it in you eyes. Believe me, the feeling is shared by me. Unfortunately, we are together and your teammates seem tolerant of that. So why not you?" Ken said.

"If I didn't have too much respect for my friends, I would call them fools for even thinking of trusting you." Cody said heatedly.

"You think I'll betray you at the first chance I get." Ken said in fake surprise.

"I know you will."

"Well, despite what you may think, I am not without honor. Betraying a person whom I am in his debt is dishonorable. I wouldn't do that." Ken said.

"Why do I not believe you?" Cody said angrily.

"Because you're a simple-minded child?" Ken suggested. Cody's eye twitched in anger. However, before Cody got to respond, ten Floramon came out of the bushes with a Kiwimon.

"Fool's! How dare you try to fight the great Vexilmon. We will stop you." One of the Floramon said. Ken immediately recognized the female voice.

"Look's like we found Ishida's attacker." Ken said, amused.

"Rain of pollen!" The Floramon said and brown powder shot from their hands at Ken. Ken ducked and ran.

"Nice try! Now it's our turn. Wormmon, digivolve." Ken said.

"Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon."

The Floramon leaped onto Stingmon so he couldn't use his Spiking Strike. While Ken was busy with his digimon, Cody brought up the digiegg of knowledge.

"Digi-armor energize!" Cody yelled.

"Armadillomon armor digivolve to... Digmon, the drill of power."

Digmon bounded towards Kiwimon with his drills spinning, but Kiwimon simply leapt out of the way.

"Like that's going to work." Kiwimon said sarcastically. "Little Pecker."

Kiwimon opened his mouth and small Kiwimon shaped heads came out and exploded on Digmon. However, since Digmon was covered in armor, the bombs did little damage to him. Seeing that, Kiwimon jump-kicked Digmon. His talons dug into Digmon

"Hey, that hurt." Digmon said, rubbing the place where he was kicked. "Gold Rush!"

Digmon's drills came off of him and went flying toward Kiwimon. The drills hit their target and Kiwimon went flying backwards. While Kiwimon was down, Digmon took the opportunity to get all those Floramon off of Stingmon.

"Thanks, Digmon." Stingmon said, swatting the last of the Floramon off him.

"Don't mention it." Digmon said. The Floramon and Kiwimon ran away just as a large shadow came from above.

"Cody! Ken!" The large bird with horns called as it landed.

"State your name and business with us, digimon!" Ken said suspiciously.

"My name's Aquilamon, but I'm better known as Hawkmon." The bird said.

"Yolei's digimon?" Cody asked

"Yes."

"What's wrong? Is Yolei hurt?" Cody asked nervously.

"We were attacked. Joe was stunned and I fear for both of their safeties. You were the closest group and they need help quickly." Aquilamon explained

"Show us." Ken said. Cody then climbed up onto Aquilamon and Ken climbed up Stingmon. They took off, not realizing that the Kiwimon was looking up and following their path. The Kiwimon then ran in another direction.

"Yolei! We're here." Cody called. Yolei was now sitting next to Joe, watching him breath, waiting for him to wake up. Ken jumped down and walked over calmly, while Cody on the other hand ran over and started talking to Yolei.

"Petuniamon! She ambushed us." Yolei cried, very distressed about Joe.

"You're not alone." Ken said. "A lot of Floramon attacked us too. Don't be too worried, stun pollen isn't poisonous, just annoying. He'll wake up soon."

Yolei sighed in relief.

"Ken! Something large is coming our way." Stingmon called from the sky. "And that Kiwimon is there also."

Ken cursed. The attacks were becoming increasingly bothersome. But with the digidestined of reliability injured, they couldn't go anywhere. Ken waited until he heard some kind of growling noise. Kiwimon jumped out with a smile on his face.

"You think you're so tough. Why don't you meet my good friend Blossomon." Kiwimon leered. From the shadows of the forest, a huge digimon came out.

"Petuniamon?" Yolei said, confused.

"No." Gomamon said soberly. "Petuniamon was only a champion level digimon. This look-alike is an ultimate and very mean."

"You want a fight? You've got it." Ken said angrily. "Stingmon, you know what to do."

Stingmon flew towards Blossomon, stingers out.

"Spiking Strike!" Stingmon said. The stingers hit their target and Blossomon winced. However, the attack wasn't strong enough and it didn't stop the digimon.

"Go Aquilamon! Help stop that thing." Yolei yelled to her digimon.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon said as he leapt into the air. The red ring hit Blossomon, but she still kept coming.

"Armadillomon, you better armor digivolve!" Cody said, taking out his D-3.

"Wait Cody. Stay with Joe. He's venerable to an attack and we need someone to protect him." Yolei yelled. Cody looked from Yolei to Joe and reluctantly nodded as Kiwimon started to go for the weaker Armadillomon. Both Ken and Yolei's digimon were pounding and pounding on the Blossomon, not only hurting it very little, but also making the digimon very mad.

"Spiral flower." Blossomon said and two small flowers with razor sharp petals came spinning out. One whacked Aquilamon, while Stingmon deflected the other.

"Where are they!?" Ken yelled at his D-terminal. He was e-mailing the others to get them to where he was, but no one was responding. As he tried to hail the digidestined again, Kiwimon started to bomb Stingmon with his attack.

"Little pecker." Kiwimon said. Blossomon used her attack again and with the combined attacks, Stingmon dedigivolved. Blossomon started for the kill on Ken. Cody just stood there in awe.

_"What can I do? What can I do?" _Cody thought desperately. _"I don't want anyone hurt, but all the digimon seem to be wanting Ken the most. Maybe if they take Ken, we can go back to normal."_

As Cody watched, Ken was backing up, yelling at Yolei to help him. Unfortunately, Aquilamon was doing very little damage to the determined digimon.

"Why do you bother to fight, bearer of love?" Kiwimon said to Yolei. "All our master wants is the Kaiser so he may have his revenge. Just give up your enemy and we'll be gone."

"Don't listen to him. After I go, you'll be next." Ken said. Yolei nodded so Kiwimon gave up on her. He moved to Cody.

"What about you, Knowledge?" Kiwimon said shrewdly. "You hate him, don't you? Why don't you help hand him over and justice will be served."

Cody blinked in confusion. He looked from his friend to his former enemy to the bird digimon. Ken looked back at him with cold, questioning eyes. Cody clenched his fist in anger and looked at Kiwimon with fire in his eyes.

"NO! This is wrong! Ken may be evil and what he does may be wrong, but even he doesn't deserve to be brought into the hands of Vexilmon. I've never willingly given up in the face of danger and I'm not about to do it now!" Cody yelled. As soon as he did that, his digivice glowed.

"Cody! Your digivice. You're doing it!" Armadillomon said. Cody looked at his digimon in determination.

"Kiwimon, tell your master he'll never win and we'll never surrender!" Cody said and his digivice grew brighter.

"Armadillomon digivolve to... Ankylomon."

The huge dinosaur digimon towered above everyone.

"Spiral flower!" Blossomon said, but the attack aimed at Ken was bounced off of Ankylomon's hard shell.

"Tail Hammer!" Ankylomon said and his tail slammed into Blossomon. His attack stopped Blossomon in her tracks, turned toward the yellow dinosaur and growled at him. Ken stopped backing up.

"Good work, Hida." Ken called quickly. Cody turned; surprised that Ken would compliment him, but something started beeping and Ken looked away. Yolei opened her beeping D-terminal and let out a whoop of joy.

"It's the others! They're coming!" Yolei shouted. As soon as she said that, they heard a voice.

"Electro shocker."

A ball of electricity came shooting from the sky and hit the ultimate digimon. Blossomon screamed in anger.

"Hey everyone! The Calvary's here." Tai said, coming through the woods on Greymon's shoulder. Birdramon, Kabuterimon, Nefertimon and Pegasusmon came through the air with their partners, while Raidramon, Garurumon and Togemon came up behind Greymon.

"From what you said about Blossomon, we all thought maximum speed would be needed. So we took the digivolving express." Tai said light-heartedly.

"Listen, Blossomon is being controlled by a dark spiral." Ken said as he looked at his D-3. "I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, it seems the spiral is buried deep in its vines, so we have to weaken it in order to get the spiral. If you do that, though, aim for the spiral's ends, so we don't have to deal with the..." Ken quickly glanced at Greymon. "Unpleasentrys that happened the first time."

Tai nodded in understanding.

"You heard what he said." Tai yelled, "Get the spiral."

One by one, the digidestined's digimon attacked the ultimate, hurting him little.

"If we want to beat that thing, we're going to need a giant weed whacker." Gomamon said from his spot besides Joe.

"That's it! Gomamon, you're a genius!" Yolei exclaimed. "Aquilamon, dedigivolve and get ready to armor digivolve."

Aquilamon landed and Hawkmon reappeared.

"Digi-armor energize!"

"Hawkmon armor digivolve to... Shurimon, the samurai of sincerity. Double Star."

The two three-pronged asterisk Shurimon had for hands shot out and knocked the attacking vines out of the way. Then Shurimon jumped up.

"I am going to destroy the spiral, so make that plant stay still."

"Golden noose." Pegasusmon and Nefertimon said at the same time and the gold glowing rope tied up Blossomon. Shurimon's bladed hand went vertically into a space between the vines and suddenly Blossomon fell to the ground.

"Great job, Shurimon!" Yolei cried. Shurimon dedigivolved back to Hawkmon and she hugged him. Ken gave one quick glance at the fallen digimon and walked away without a word or any expression. The digidestined stared at his retreating back as Joe woke up and Izzy and TK helped him to his feet.

"Man, that guy really needs to loosen up and chill." Davis said after congratulating Yolei.

"I don't think those words are even in his vocabulary. Ken would probably freeze up from being so stiff before he loosens up." Matt said.

Blossomon started to stir.

"Let's go before that digimon wakes up." Tai said and started walking.

"I'll race you to the goggles." Davis challenged.

"You're on." Tai said playfully and they both ran at top speed toward the direction of Ken.

"Brainless dummies." Yolei said, shaking her head.

"You said it." Sora said with a laugh.

***

"How much longer?" Mimi complained. With the newly digivolved digimon, the attacks from the opposition were easier to crush. And to make sure that the digimon conserved energy, the group was still walking through the woods.

"I don't know, you asked the same question five minutes ago." Izzy said.

"Well, this is tiring. I haven't done this much walking since we were in the digital world four years ago." Mimi whined.

"Hey, there's a clearing! Maybe Vexilmon's place is there." Joe said, hopefully.

"Or maybe that pollen really did effect you brain." Ken said sarcastically. "We still have a bit to go, so don't get your hopes up."

Unfortunately, Ken was right. As the forest grew less dense, the digidestined could see desert that seemed to span for miles. Everyone groaned as they walked into it, only Ken and Wormmon seemed unfazed.

"Great, another desert. And this one's hotter than the first one." Yolei complained, fanning herself. After a few minutes, the sun was making everyone have very bad moods.

"Whose idea was it to walk in at desert?" Davis said, annoyed.

"We all decided to go on this mission, though it seems we should have left you at home." Matt said.

"Yeah, well, who decided it was OK to be out in this heat without any water?" Tai said.

"Ken was the one who said we shouldn't stop by that river." Davis inquired.

"So you're saying it's Ken's fault?" Tai said. That statement made Ken turn with a very annoyed look on his face.

"First off, I'm right next to you, so don't think I can't hear you. Second, nobody, I repeat, nobody thought of bringing water with us, and third, I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS A DESERT!" Ken said. Tai and Davis backed away in caution, blown away by Ken's outburst. Ken then stiffly speed walked to the front of the group.

"Typical. You just had to play the blame game, didn't you?" Sora sighed. A few minutes passed, then the lone leader of the group slowed and stopped, focusing on what looked like to be nothing.

"What is it?" Kari asked.

Ken pointed to a spot, and out of thin air, a structure seemed to shimmer and appear.

"Vexilmon's last known location. I can feel it." Ken said calmly.

"What is it?" TK asked.

"Well, whatever it is, we better get to it." Davis said and started walking to it. The others followed curiosity and fear knotted in their stomachs as the wandered toward the structure and Vexilmon.


	12. The Night Relm

Chapter 12

Running in a desert isn't the most intelligent thing to do. The digidestined quickly realized that as they crossed the barren land toward the building that lay in front of them. By the time they stopped at the structure, the group was sweating and extremely hot.

"So?" Davis said, gasping for air, even though he had only gone a few feet. "What is that thing?"

"It's a well. But what's it doing in the middle of a desert?" TK exclaimed.

"I don't care, just as long as it has the liquid form of two hydrogen's and an oxygen." Izzy said, wiping the sweat off his face.

Tai and Davis were the first ones there. They leaned over the edge of the well and frowned when they saw nothing. They then backed up as Ken came over. His eye's narrowed as he looked over the edge.

"Nothing! All I see is darkness and there's no bucket." Tai complained.

"Great! Now what?" Sora said.

Tai was about to answer but Ken signaled them over to the well, then plunged his hand in. When his hand went in, the air rippled, as if it was water.

"This is no ordinary well. It must be a portal." Ken said.

"So Vexilmon is hiding in another dimension?" Kari asked nervously.

"Seems that way to me. I theorize that this portal was made by Vexilmon himself." Izzy said. Ken tried pulling his hand out, but it didn't budge. "And I bet it's a one way entrance too."

"Could you give me a hand, someone?" Ken ask, angry and annoyed at the fact his hand was stuck and that he had to ask for help. Davis walked over, grabbed Ken's arm and pulled, but it took the strength of Davis, Tai and Matt to finally get Ken's hand out. They all fell backwards as his hand came out with what sounded like a popping noise.

"Look's like the only way to get to Vexilmon is to go into the portal." Tai addressed the group. "Are you all willing to go through with this?"

Before anyone could answer, Ken jumped up on the rim of the well, paced on it and looked down into the hole. He then turned toward the confused faces of his former adversaries.

"I don't ask for many favors." Ken said bluntly. "But I think all of you will agree with me when I say this. I'm going down there, and its more than likely that I'll be killed. I would like for one of you to stay behind."

"But why?" Kari asked.

"Because," Ken said slowly "if I do die, I'd like my parent's to know I didn't die with my face in the dirt. And I think all your parent's would like closure if we don't come home. It's up to you who you to stay back."

The digidestined all nodded in unison, they agreed with him for once.

"I nominate Cody to stay." TK said.

"What?" Cody exclaimed in surprise.

"I second that." Joe said and everyone else nodded.

"Then it's settled, Cody will stay." Kari said.

"No way! I'm not staying! It's wrong for me just to stand around while you guys go into a death trap!" Cody argued. "If you guy's go, I go."

"Cody, please don't make this like the time in the oilrig. We all agree that you should stay. Armadillomon doesn't have as strong of attacks against Vexilmon as the rest us do, and..." Yolei said, pausing to think of a good excuse, "you're too young to die."

"If you're done, then there's something Hida should know." Ken said more harshly than intended. "If we don't get back in forty-eight hours, find a way back to my base. You can open a digi-port from there, plus upload programs. There are about twenty incomplete programs, so one may bypass the firewalls if completed right. If we don't get back, find a way to the real world. Tell my parents..." Ken's face twitched as he tried to find right word's "tell them everything."

Cody still had a disbelieving look on his face as Ken jumped backwards and disappeared with a quiet shlooping sound into the well, Wormmon right behind him.

"If Ken thinks he can hog all the fun, he's wrong." Davis said. He ran up and jumped over the side of the well with Veemon in his arms. "Geranimo!"

"See ya in a few hours, Cody. Banzai!" Tai said as he to vaulted into the well.

"Tai, wait for me!" Agumon said as he bounded after his partner. Next were Matt and Gabumon. They both stepped up onto the edge.

"Make sure my dad doesn't stay too long at that camp, Cody. You know, if..." Matt said evenly. Then he calmly stepped off and dropped.

"This was a bad idea. We are walking into a trap." Joe said nervously, looking into the well as he stood on the edge with Gomamon in his arms.

"Don't tell me you're going to become the complainer you were four years ago again." Izzy said indignantly. He was right behind Joe.

"Tell my parents and brothers I'll miss them." Joe said to Cody, who was standing in disbelief, eyes becoming wider and sadder with each person. Joe looked over the edge once again, prepared to jump, but couldn't. So Izzy lightly pushed him and both Joe and his digimon gave a startled cry before disappearing.

"Tell my parents I love them." Izzy said quickly before vaulting over the side with one hand and dropping into the dark hole. Kari, who was next, was shaking visibly with fear on her face.

"What if that leads to the dark ocean?" She said nervously. Everyone except TK gave her a confused look.

"Then we'll fight it." TK said confidently. He led her to the well. Kari stepped up and looked back at Cody.

"Make sure my parents know what happened." Kari said feebly, then she took a small jump and dropped. TK gave a small nod in acknowledgment to Cody that said good-bye and was a salute, then went after her. Now the only people left were Mimi, Sora, Yolei and Cody. All three of the girls weren't as enthusiastic about this as their male teammates.

"You know, I moved to New York to get away from all the fighting." Mimi said, laughing nervously. "Guess going halfway around the world doesn't help."

"Guys, don't make me do this." Cody said. Somehow, he found the courage to snap out of his gloom and argue.

"Be happy. Who knows what Vexilmon will throw at us. If we die, at least we'll know someone made it out." Sora said.

Cody looked like he was about to cry. Mimi walked over and gave him a quick hug, then did a running jump into the well.

"We'll see you soon." Sora said as she went into the well. All that was left were the two friends who had known each other since they moved into the same building.

"Yolei, I'm coming with you." Cody said defiantly.

"No, you're not. Armadillomon will take car of you. As soon as I go, I want you to get out of here. Get to the forest and start heading to the Kaisers base. I don't want anything to happen to you. OK?" Yolei said. Cody looked sad and frustrated at the same time. Yolei embraced Cody, then she stepped on the edge and leaped. As Cody stood, alone with Armadillomon, his face twitched as he harnessed emotions of the possibility of never seeing his friends again. Cody sat down in the tiny amount of shade created by the well and prayed to his fathers' soul that his friends would be protected.

*Back to the rest of the group*

The first sensation was falling. Ken looked up and saw Davis above him, probably yelling at the top of his lungs but his voice was lost to the wind. Feeling the vacuum that is created if air isn't blowing in your face when you fall, Ken looked back down at the pure darkness below him. He could feel the rush of cold air whip through his hair and heard his cape flapping above him. His cape? Ken looked up again and saw his Kaiser cape whipping like a flag as he fell. The Kaiser then looked at himself an saw that he was once again decked out in his outfit, glasses included. None of it was damaged or ripped. As he was looking at his newly gloved hands, Ken saw a blurry, gray light and his falling slowed. Soon, Ken saw some king of ground below him. Even though he had slowed considerably, it wasn't enough to stop him from slamming in the rushing ground with a loud smack. Nor did it help the fact that Wormmon landed right on top of him. Ken stood up and looked about as the others fell around him. The sky was a dark gray with a small reddish tint, and the ground was nothing more than solid darkness. There was no other way to describe it, just a solid black field of with a few hills in all directions. The landscape was drowned in blackness as it got farther out.

"Whoa, where are we, dude?" Davis said as he observed his surroundings.

"This place is creepy." Yolei observed and everyone nodded in agreement.

"This place..." Kari said, "it feels wrong."

"You're right. This wasn't the most strategic or intelligent thing we've done." Ken agreed. Suddenly both he and Yolei collapsed onto the floor.

"Yolei!" All the digidestined cried.

"Oh no, Ken!" Wormmon said.

"That's right, everyone run over to her." Ken said sarcastically. "I feel appreciated."

"Sorry." Kari said with a shrug. "What's going on?

"I don't know, but I can't move." Ken said, concerned.

"Yolei's unconscious." Joe said, bending over her. "Why is this happening to only Ken and Yolei?"

Right then, Yolei opened her eyes and pushed herself up. Ken mirrored those moves with a combination of apprehension and confusion on his sunglasses wearing face while Yolei had a dead look in her eyes.

"Get away from me now." Ken commanded

"What? Why?" Sora asked

"Just do it. Before..." Ken started to say, but his arm shot out and slammed his palm into Matt's chest, sending him falling back several feet.

"HEY!" Tai yelled and was about to attack Ken, but Yolei, who came up next to Ken, kicked Tai and sent him sprawling.

"Ken! What did you do to Yolei?! How dare you go traitorous on us!" TK yelled.

Ken was speechless as the digimon started to intervene.

"I've been waiting to do this for a long time! Lightning Paw!" Gatomon said. She jumped up with her claws out, but Ken instantly took out his whip and whapped Gatomon away.

"Pepper Breath." Agumon said and shot a ball of fire at the Kaiser. Ken smothered the fire with one swish of his cape.

"Yolei! Please stop this!" Hawkmon cried and tried to restrain his partner.

"Get away from me, bird." Yolei said, kicking Hawkmon, then going on to elbow Sora and knocking her into Mimi.

"What are you two doing!" Davis exclaimed.

"It's not me, I swear. So stop attacking or you'll hurt both of us." Ken yelled in fear as he swiped a punch at Davis.

"That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard!" Tai shouted.

Actually, it very close to the truth. Vexilmon's voice said and both Ken and Yolei became inanimate. Vexilmon materialized in front of everyone.

"Vexilmon!" Everyone said in unison.

I knew you were foolish, but I didn't realize you were stupid enough to actually follow me to my home. But since you're here, I might as well tell you where you are. Vexilmon laughed. This place is called the Night realm. It's a dimension that exists between two of the dark worlds, the dark ocean and the world Apocalymon was defeated in. Not only do I control the aspects of this world, but also my powers are increased. With you here, it was child's play to put you under my command.

"But how? When?" Ken wondered, then it hit him. "That night... when you tried to take over my mind!"

My slaves were right, you are slow, especially for one human's consider intellectually advanced. But yes, I was able to implant a small amount of my acid onto your brain. In this world, the acid is activated and controlling a mind is easy.

"And Yolei?" Kari asked, eyeballing the lifeless girl.

The implant was put in the bearer of love and sincerity when that Snimon captured her. I didn't expect you to follow me, so the acid was only meant to subconsciously persuade her into killing you, Kaiser. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work on humans, which is probably why your head hasn't been ripped off your shoulders yet.

__

"So that's what she was doing when I woke up this morning." Ken thought.

"You jerk! Let her go!" Tai said and started running toward Vexilmon with Agumon, digivice in hand. Vexilmon gave a small shot at Tai. The shot purposely hit the ground in front of him, but even though the acid didn't touch him, Tai's shoes started to melt.

Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not only can I easily kill you, but with a simple thought, I can make your purple haired friend break her own neck. Vexilmon said teasingly. Tai growled in anger, but backed up.

"How pathetic." Ken stated. "Not only do you use my technology to do your dirty work, but you have to resort to actually capturing and enslaving one of your oppressors to fight your war. Even _I_ am not that weak."

"Shut up." Yolei said, suddenly coming to life. She quickly stepped up and backhanded Ken in the face with a sickening crack. Ken's head snapped back with such force that he probably would have fallen down if his controlled body had let him.

You really should restrain that tongue of yours, Kaiser. Vexilmon said, sounding mad. It will get you in trouble someday. Vexilmon paused as Yolei stared Ken down with narrowed eyes. It's unfortunate that I couldn't take over all of you, but that gizmo on your brain stem keeps me from doing so from your neck up.

I don't have any gizmo on my brain stem." Ken said indignantly.

You don't know? Well that's interesting. I was positive you'd realize that something was controlling you long before I came about.

"Nothing controls me! I've made sure of that!" Ken exclaimed angrily.

Really? I beg to differ. Vexilmon said. He snapped his fingers and Ken's arms moved to the back of his head and lifted the hair that was hiding the back of his neck. Then he turned around so his back was facing the digidestined.

"What's the point of this, you fiend?" Ken exclaimed.

Just to annoy you and show your friends what I already know.

The digidestined looked at what Vexilmon was talking about. There, small but distinct, was a circular scar on Ken's neck.

"That's just the scar Ken got years ago in the digital world. What does that have to do with anything?" Wormmon explained.

Everything! Vexilmon said, suddenly angry. Something was injected into your precious Kaiser when he got that scar. Though I don't know of any device that can repel my mind control. Vexilmon shrugged. Oh well, maybe I'll take it out in study it once I kill you.

Vexilmon went to raise his hand for an attack. Everyone tensed up, but then Vexilmon seemed to have an afterthought.

Then again, what's an execution without a little entertainment. Vexilmon said with a short chuckle. He made a small jerking gesture with his hand and Yolei gave a small, sadistic smile. Every digidestined, including Ken, gasped as Yolei leaned over and kissed the Kaiser. Ken obviously did not kiss back, but was forced to stay in the same place as she performed the action. When Yolei was done, she walked over to Vexilmon while Ken spat on the ground.

"That's disgusting. Why the hell did you force her to do that." Ken asked, enraged and revolted.

I did not force her to do anything. I simply granted her wish. Vexilmon said, laughing loudly in their heads.

"What's that suppose to mean!" Davis bellowed, obviously just as angry as Ken.

Her fixation with one Ken Ichijouji is very interesting. I believe you humans call it a crush. Vexilmon said casually. She was devastated when she found out he was her enemy.

"Liar!" Ken yelled. "Why would she bother with me? I surly don't care about those stupid fan girls that follow me around. Now tell me the truth!"

"Actually, Ken," Kari said slowly. "There may be some truth into what he just said."

"Yeah, like all of it." Mimi blurted out before Sora elbowed her in the side.

"What are you saying?" Ken asked in disbelief, back still turned to the digidestined.

Poor, poor Kaiser. Did you just realized that your enemies are actually your fans.

"SHUT UP."

Oh, but why should I? When I can make your life miserable. You see, this dimension is very special, for it can make a person go into another's subconscious, or better yet, their nightmares. And that means I can do this. Vexilmon said. He pointed one of his long, liquid fingers at Ken.

"Ah... AHHHHHH!" Ken screamed in pain. Wormmon got ready to digivolve, but Ken once again fell to the ground, this time unconscious.

"KEN!" Wormmon cried.

"Very good master." Yolei complimented, sneering. "What shall you do with the others." 

Yolei pointed to the digidestined, who were getting ready to have their digimon digivolve.

Those fools are more trouble than they're worth. Vexilmon sighed and waved his hand toward them. The digidestined clutched their head simultaneously before collapsing into the same condition as their former enemy. The digimon stood in protective positions in front of their partners before the same thing happened to them.

"Shall we kill them now." Yolei asked eagerly.

Not just yet. Once the show gets boring, then you have permission my to kill them. Vexilmon said. Yolei for some reason looked very disappointed. Be patient Love. Just you wait and see. Just wait and see.

Author's notes: I know that Ken probably knew that Yolei had a crush on him, but for dramatic purposes, lets just say he didn't. OK? Good.


	13. Memories

Authors note: Just to clarify an attack in chapter 11, Kiwimon's real attack is pummel peck. Thank you Digimon Cager. Now that that's done. On with the story.

Chapter 13

One by one, the digidestined materialized. First Tai and Agumon, then Matt and Gabumon, Sora and Biyomon, Davis and Veemon, Izzy and Tentomon, Mimi and Palmon, Kari and Gatomon, Joe and Gomamon and lastly, TK and Patamon. They all observed they're surrounding in confusion. Unlike the dimension they were just in, which had distinct features, this place was completely black. Though there was no visible light source, everyone could see each other perfectly, not to mention the fact that if the digidestined didn't feel the hardness under their feet, it seemed as if they weren't standing on any type of ground.

"This place is even weirder than the night realm." Davis said.

"Do you think we're dead?" Joe asked.

"I hope not." Mimi said.

"Hey. Where's Ken? I mean, if this is the afterlife, wouldn't Ken be here too?" Sora said. Everyone started looking around again, but they saw nothing. Then, a sound started was heard at a distance.

"I hear footsteps." Tai stated. The group went completely silent. Sure enough, quick, echoing footsteps came floating to the digidestined's ears. At first the image was a bit blurred and far away, but soon, the distinct features of a small boy no older than six came into view. The child had short indigo hair and seemed to be looking around for something. When he spotted the digidestined, he walked over and looked up at Kari.

"Have you seen my brother?" The child asked.

"Uhhh... no. What's his name?" Kari asked him.

"Sam. He's really smart and is good at sports." The boy said, bursting with pride. "I was just walking with him, and then I couldn't find him anymore."

The digidestined looked at the child in utter confusion. The boy seemed oblivious to the fact he was in a place that was pitch black.

"Well Toto, we definitely aren't in Kansas anymore." Davis said sarcastically. Tai stepped on Davis's foot very hard.

"Ken!" A voice called out, making the digidestined nearly jump out of their skin. "Kenny, where are you!?"

The boy's face became as bright as a sun.

"Sam!" The boy cried happily as he ran to a figure that walked into view from the blackness. This new kid couldn't be older than twelve and had blue hair and glasses. The digidestined did a double take as they looked at this boy, for he looked exactly like the digimon Kaiser. However, the younger boy, Ken, did not seem to care and instead went right up and hugged Sam around the waist.

"I'm sorry Sam. I didn't mean to lose you." Ken said as he looked up at his brother Sam with a bright smile. "You won't go anywhere again, right?"

Sam patted Ken on the head and looked down at him with a small frown. Sam then gave a slow shake of his head.

"I think you know the answer to that one, Kenny." Sam said gravely. Ken's smile dropped like a thousand-pound bag of stones.

"No." Ken whimpered softly and buried his head in Sam's stomach. The digidestined were quiet. Something told them this was important and not to interfere.

"Yes. You know why this is, don't you." Sam asked the small boy and he nodded. Sam took a step backwards and pushed himself out of Ken's grip. "Bye Kenny-boy."

The six-year-older boy looked absolutely devastated as Sam waved and walked away. Ken stared at his retreating back until it was lost in the darkness. Then he started to cry softly.

"So is that really Ken Ichijouji? I mean, I don't think he has a brother." Sora asked. Kari walked over to the boy and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Why would someone just abandon his brother?" Kari asked.

"He didn't." A familiar voice said. There was a gleam of sunglasses then the real, presently Kaiser dressed Ken Ichijouji came out of the blackness with Wormmon at his feet. "He died. You see, digidestined, this is my... worst nightmare. I don't know how and I don't know why, but for some reason, you're witnessing this. Feel privileged, not even my parent's know about these."

Older Ken walked over and rubbed his younger self on the head.

"So you had a brother?"

Older Ken sighed wearily. He took off his glasses and looked at his comrades for a second. His eyes were red and tired.

"Yeah. I did. Until _it_ happened." Ken said softly and with sadness none of the digidestined had ever heard. TK opened his mouth to ask what _it_ was, but the dimension seemed responded to Ken's thoughts and all of the sudden, they were on a street in Tamachi, Tokyo. Now both older and young Ken were staring at a car that was coming down the road at tremendous speed.

"KEN! WATCH OUT!" A voice said and everyone turned except the Ken's to see Sam running out. The driver in the car must have realized he was going to hit the Ken's because he swerved. Unfortunately, by doing so the car slammed dead center into Sam. Mimi and Kari both covered their eyes and turned away while the other digidestined instantly had sad, shocked looks on their face. The Ken's simply looked on in awe as the force of the car being so close to them made their hair ripple and there was a hollow thud as Sam's body hit the ground. Both of them stared at the body as the image faded into darkness again.

"Ken I... I had no idea." Matt said, still in a state of shock.

"Spare me your sympathy, Ishida." Older Ken said harshly, looking at the spot that had shown Sam's body.

"It's terrible, isn't it? I mean, of course it's terrible to lose someone like that, but you keep blaming yourself, don't you?" Tai said, staring holes into the taller Ken.

"What are you, a psychic?" Older Ken snorted. Tai shook his head.

"I went through the same when Kari got sick."

Instead of replying, Ken simply sat down on the floor and in a monotone voice, started chanting two words. The smaller version of Ken mirrored those movements, but did not speak.

"My fault.... my fault... my fault..." Older Ken said softly.

"Ken? Ken!?" Kari said, snapping her finger in the Kaiser's face. He made no movements of acknowledgment. She stumbled backwards as a black aura surrounded him. Sora and Matt looked at each other and nodded. Joe saw that and groaned.

"Not this again. I thought we had seen the last of that darkness four years ago." Joe said. Everyone else gave the three of them confused looks.

"When we split up during the time when we were fighting the dark masters, something strange happened to Sora and me." Matt explained. "We were trapped in this dark cave that had no end, but we were able to get out of it by believing in ourselves. We, or at least Sora, was surrounded by a dark aura that looks exactly like that. Unless we get Ken out of this state soon, we may be stuck here for a very long time."

Tai's eyes widened a little at the possibility of being stuck here, but then rushed over to the Kaiser and started to try every method to get him out of his trance.

"KEN! WAKE UP!" Tai said loudly in Ken's ear while Matt and Joe tried to make Ken stand up. Both methods failed miserably.

"He can't hear you." The smaller Ken suddenly said.

"What... I thought... How can you talk?" Mimi stammered.

"Just because _he's_ repeating one phrase over and over like an imbecile doesn't mean I have to." Small Ken said, looking up with sad eyes.

"But I thought you are the same person." Tai said. Everyone had stopped working on older Ken when the smaller version of him spoke.

"Not really." Young Ken said simply.

"So what are you. His innocence?" Kari asked.

"God no. I'd hate to be _his_ innocence. It must be the size of a molecule by now." Little Ken said, cracking one of the famous Kaiser smiles.

"Ooookaaaaay. You're making jokes about yourself." Davis said sarcastically. "What a great way to heighten your self-esteem."

"Actually, I'm not. As some of you have already figured out, you are trapped in the mind of Ken Ichijouji. In this dimension, the sub-conscious mind is separated from the conscious one. The person you see in front of you is the digimon Kaiser." Little Ken said, pointing to his other self. "Think of me as the little nagging voice in the back of your head. I'm the last hope you have of getting out of here sane, so listen closely. You must make Ken wake up, and the only way to do that is get him out of this dark trance. Since you already have three comrades experienced in this area, it won't be much of a problem. But be warned, your enemy lies close, watching your moves. If he figures out that you are waking up, he will kill you without a second thought."

"There's one problem." Joe said hysterically. "Ken can't hear us!"

"The Kaiser can't, but I can. Ken can talk through his memories and me. Remember that you are in his mind. Ken can manipulate dimension as he pleases." Little Ken said.

"But how can we solve something we don't understand." Sora asked. Little Ken just shrugged.

"I don't think he understands himself. Ever since the dark ocean he's-" Younger Ken said.

"The dark ocean? Ken's been there?" Kari asked frantically

"Uh huh. Why do you ask.?" Young Ken said.

"I've been there. But why'd he go to that awful place." Kari said. Ken shrugged again.

"His brother, I guess. He was incredibly depressed after the incident, so I guess opening a dark gate was easy at that time. Though I am a little surprised he was able to open it two years after it happened." Young Ken said.

"What happened there?" TK asked. Then, like before, the pitch-black surroundings morphed into a certain memory, specifically, the Dark ocean. As if he was acting in a play, young Ken too out his digivice and dipped it into the water. When he took it out, it had changed into the infamous dark D-3 of the digimon Kaiser. The dark ocean faded, but younger Ken stayed there, holding the wet digivice.

"I think you know what happened next." Small Ken said flatly, looking at the item in his hand.

"Something doesn't add up. Even if you are depressed, that doesn't mean you can become a Nazi overnight. And the dark ocean, with all its power, can't change your digivice." TK inquired.

"Well duh!" Young ken said, which was very weird; seeing a six-year-old being sarcastic to an eleven-year-old. "Something's controlling the great Kaiser and it isn't Vexilmon. Why do you think he chose Ichijouji's mind to trap you all in. Ken's already trapped in his own mind with grief."

Tai could not believe what he just heard.

"Ken has to stop blaming himself for the death of his brother." Tai exclaimed, putting his hands on the shoulders of the young child so that they were looking eye to eye.

"What's the point? Vexilmon might as well kill us now." Little Ken said.

"You want him to win?"

"No. But what happens if we defeat him. Do you know how much information he's given you? Everything about the rings and spirals only he and the worm knew until now. We're done for!" The juvenile ken cried. The Kaiser also stopped chanting and sat quietly. "Everything will be different now! How can you believe things will be fine?!"

"Because they will be! Do you really think we want to fight you? Its not like we're in a video game and we're doing this for fun." Sora cried. "We can be your friends!"

The Kaisers eyes flickered behind his glasses.

"I don't have...I don't need any friends." The Kaiser said quietly.

Mimi walked over to the older version of Ken.

"How can you say that?! Don't you have a soul?!" Mimi exclaimed. She arched her hand toward the sitting Kaiser's face as the others came next to her. However, a few inches before she reached his face, some sort of shield made her hand bounce back with the same force she had thrown at it and her hand flew backwards and whacked Matt in the face.

"Ow!" Matt yelped as he rubbed his jaw. "What the heck happened?"

"Nice try." The small Ken said with a small laugh. "But unless he wants you to, you won't be able to touch the Kaiser."

"Wait a nano, how was he able to respond to us?" Izzy said, realizing something. "I thought you said he couldn't hear us?"

As impulsive as ever, Tai started to shake the small boy.

"What's going on!?" Tai exclaimed.

"Hey, hey. Don't shoot the messenger. Like I said before, I'm only his sub-conscious and in this dimension I'm not completely connected to the Ken we all know and love." The little Ken said with a hint of sarcasm. "However, it seems that you are obviously convincing him of something, because he can now hear you, but barely. And I do stress barely."

That was all Sora and Matt needed to hear. The both of them, in hope of helping Ken the same way their friends helped them, walked over to the Kaiser. Sora actually pressed her hands on the invisible shield.

"Ken, we're counting on you. You have to get over the fact that your brother is dead. If you keep blaming yourself then you'll be lost forever in the darkness." Matt said sternly. "We can help, but you have to wake up or everything that has happened will be for nothing. At least do it for the memory of your brother."

"That's a very low blow, even for you Ishida. And way too sappy." The Kaiser said quietly.

"Ken, please help the digidestined." Wormmon said. "I doubt you want to be stuck here."

"If I do, I won't be doing it for anyone. Especially not my brother. However, I do have a score to settle with Vexilmon." The Kaiser said.

Sora felt the shield start to weaken, so she applied pressure to it and sure enough, her hand went through the invisible wall. The Kaiser did not smile or anything as she held out her hand to help him up. But as soon as he got to his feet, something happened.

"We need to have a plan. I-" the Kaiser stopped abruptly and started to cough. He put his hand to his throat and young Ken did the same thing.

"What's happening?" Joe asked with a sense of urgency. Instead of responding, the Kens started fading away. As the digidestined, they could actually see indents from what seemed like an invisible hand around the Ken's necks.

"I bet its Vexilmon. Geez, what is with that guy and choking people." TK said.

"We don't have any time for this. Ken, get us out of here NOW!" Kari said.

The Kens looked at each other as they gasped for air. They nodded in unison. The dimension started to crack like glass and the digidestined and their digimon felt a pulling sensation as their souls reconnected with their bodies. Now, the final battle shall begin.

A/N: I know, I know. That was a quick and sappy chapter, but I just had to do a chapter like this. Is that so wrong? Please review. Thanks


	14. The final battle

Chapter 14

The only signal that the digidestined were back in their own minds was the slight twitch in their closed eyes before they shoot up into a sitting position. Davis blinked twice before realizing what had happened. Then, it dawned him that Ken was still being choked, so Davis whipped his head around to see Yolei with her hands on Ken's neck. She was kneeling right next to him with her thumbs pressed over his windpipe and a smile on her face. Ken, from lack of oxygen, could not pull free from the death grip.

"Nice to see you awake for your final moments. Time to die, Kaiser." Yolei said, just above a whisper. She increased pressure on his neck. Fortunately, Davis body slammed Yolei and was wrenched away from her victim.

"No, you're awake. This was not suppose to happen." Yolei cried in anger.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Matt said. Yolei got ready to charge at them, but Vexilmon materialized like before.

Just because you've gotten out of the mind trap doesn't mean I still can't kill you. Vexilmon said.

"How dare you do that to me." Ken yelled, still gasping a bit for air. "I will make you pay for bringing up those old memories. Wormmon, digivolve!"

"Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon."

Finally! I shall show you the true extent of my power. Vexilmon said joyously. As Stingmon leapt up, ready to attack, Yolei stood up from her position on the ground.

"You're a dead man, courage and friendship." Yolei growled. With that she swung at Davis, but he was ready and ducked. Then Ken stood up.

"Oh great, not again." Ken said, exasperated. He too started to attack the digidestined.

"Joe, Izzy, TK. You take Yolei. Me, Matt and Davis will take Ken. The rest of you are to get your digimon to protect us." Tai quickly shot out orders, then started taking down Ken.

"If you don't mind, I could use some help up here." Stingmon said as he tried to get a shot at Vexilmon, but Vexilmon easily dodged it and laughed. The digidestined looked at their partners and soon all the digimon were digivolved or armor digivolved, depending on how strong a laser attack the digivolution had.

"Eat laser, Demon. Cat's eye beam!" Nefertimon said. Obviously she was mad by the whole experience of being trapped in a mind. However, Vexilmon put out a hand and the pink beams hit it. He laughed as the lasers simply disappeared as they shot into his hand. The digidestined gasped.

Fools! Have you forgotten that my powers are increased here. Your puny energy beams do nothing to me. Vexilmon cried in everybody's head. Yolei and Ken took this distraction as an opportunity and kicked their attackers in unison.

"That's it. Nobody hurts Tai." Greymon said as Tai went down. Greymon rapidly fired Nova Blasts at Vexilmon, but they did nothing to hurt him.

"Everybody, shoot at Vexilmon with your best attack. That should do it." Kabuterimon said.

"Nova Blast"

"Howling Blaster"

"Needle spray"

"Electro Shocker"

"Meteor Wing"

"Harpoon Torpedo"

"Aqueous beam"

"Cat's eye beam"

"V-Laser"

"Spiking Strike"

All ten attacks hit dead on. The digidestined, even Ken, who was now being pinned down by Matt's knees, held their breath, hoping and waiting for the defeat of their enemy. Unfortunately, all they heard was the sadistic laughter of Vexilmon in their heads as the smoke cleared and they saw him floating above them without a scratch on him.

"No." Kari said quietly and sadly

Obviously, comprehending a simple fact is too hard for you. So let me put it for you so you can understand. You cant hurt me. Simple enough? Vexilmon said sarcastically. But lucky for me, I can hurt you. Venom EXPLOSION!

Acid shot at the digidestined's digimon. With Vexilmon's increased powers from the night realm, the champion digimon didn't stand a chance. Faster than the blink of an eye, the digimon dedigivolved, except this time, they were so weak that they couldn't even stand. The digidestined ran to gather their digimon (Kari picked up Wormmon), forgetting about Yolei and Ken. Big mistake. The two controlled members of the team stood up, dusted themselves off and ran after their teammates. They then started to strategically place punches and kicks on the oppressors, hurting the digidestined more than they had before.

Look at you pathetic digimon's faces, digidestined. This will be the last time you will ever see them. Or anything for that matter Vexilmon said loudly in the digidestined's heads as Ken and Yolei beat on them. Say bye bye. Venom-

"Armadillomon digivolve to... Ankylomon" A voice from above said and the large golden digimon fell, on it's back, right on top of Vexilmon. This caused Vexilmon to slightly lose control of his two digidestined and Ken's fist stopped an inch from slamming straight into Davis's nose.

"Get away from my friends, you traitor!" Cody said as he fell. In his hand was a thick wooden rod. Instead of body-slamming the floor like the others before him, Cody landed on his feet and knocked Ken's hand away from Davis's face with the rod. Yolei went back to attacking, but Cody kept Ken from also doing so.

"Cody! What are you doing here? We told you to stay in the digital world" Sora said.

"No, you said I couldn't come with you. Never said I couldn't follow you." Cody said wisely.

Sora sighed in annoyance. Ankylomon rolled off of Vexilmon, unharmed and stood over the digidestined, blocking Vexilmon from attacking with his acid and completely shielding the digidestined from him. This did not go unnoticed.

"His shell. I willing to bet that Ankylomon's hard shell can resist most attacks, even if they're from a mega." Izzy said, still cradling a weakened Tentomon.

"OW!" Ken yelled as Cody whacked him on his side. Cody then used the rod to whack Ken in the chest and knock him to the ground.

"Traitor!" Cody yelled at Ken as he held the rod to Ken's neck to hold him down.

"Don't go after me! Get Yolei! We're both being controlled by Vexilmon, but I can still feel pain. My body will still react to pain, hers won't because of being completely controlled. Go after her!" Ken screamed at the smaller boy who had just taken him down and was now practically standing on him. Cody hesitated as he looked at Yolei, who was still punching Joe.

"But... you..." Cody stammered, confused about what was going on.

"JUST DO IT!" Ken bellowed at Cody.

Cody jumped off of Ken and ran to Yolei with his substitute Kendo stick and went to Joe's side. Ken instantly sat up, but two hands roughly pushed him back on the ground, slamming his head into the floor.

"Hey, I still want to have some brain cells left when I get out of here." Ken commented angrily at Tai, who had been the one to push him down. Tai just gave him a smile.

"Yolei, I don't want to hurt you. But I will if I have to." Cody said nervously, getting into the common fighting position that his grandfather had taught him.

"You are nothing more than a boy with a stick." Yolei said in a menacing voice. And with that, she started to attack.

"How can we stop Vexilmon? We've never faced an enemy this strong with such little power of our own." TK said, hugging Patamon.

"Well, technically, you've never actually battled me face to face." Ken said, sounding offended at the thought that Vexilmon was stronger than his army. "I'm more of an opponent than this blob."

"What's that phrase I'm looking for? Oh yeah. Shove it, Ken." Sora snapped at the Kaiser. "This is no time to act arrogant. We have to think of a way to defeat him."

"How can we? It's not like our digimon can digivolve to ultimate and Vexilmon doesn't seem to have a weak spot." Kari said.

"He was never this strong in the digital world." Mimi said, watching as Cody uppercut Yolei with his stick.

"Cody, Vexilmon is starting to wear my shell thin. Ya all better think of a plan soon or this version of Chinese water torture will erode me away." Ankylomon said, indicating to the constant attack that Vexilmon putting on his shell.

"He's much stronger here than in the digital world because a different dimension." TK said.

"Wait a second." Izzy said. The digidestined could practically see a bulb switching on in his head. "This is another dimension! Which means things are different here!" Izzy looked at Tai. "Tai, this may be a long shot, but if I'm right, we could beat him."

"What are you talking about, Izzy!" Tai said, completely confused. Ken figured it out though and raised his eyebrows from his place on the floor.

"If you're thinking of doing what I think you're going to do, then you really are going on a long shot." Ken said skeptically.

"What do you mean?" Sora said.

"I theorize that since we're in another dimension, that some of the rules of the digital world don't apply. I think we can access our crests!" Izzy said rapidly.

"What!?" They all said. Izzy got a determined look on his face.

"Tentomon? Do you think you could digivolve one last time?" Izzy asked Tentomon in a gentle voice.

"I'll give it my best." Tentomon said weakly.

"Then I'm going in. If any of you are unsure about my theory, I won't blame you for not coming." Izzy said.

"Izzy, this is not the time for stupid heroics!" Mimi cried.

"Unfortunately, stupid heroics is in the digidestined job description." Izzy said, and with that, he slid under Ankylomon with Tentomon in his arms.

"Oh for the love of... Davis! Take over for now. I've a computer whiz to save." Tai said. He too slid under Ankylomon with Agumon. The older digidestined decided to follow Tai, just in case Izzy was right, though Kari and TK, who were still classified as the older generation, stayed with Davis and Cody. Cody, seeing Yolei distracted by the sudden change in events, took the opportunity to leap on her and knock her down. TK also helped by holding Yolei's legs while Cody held her arms. Kari was helping Davis by also holding Ken's legs while Davis kneeled on top of Ken.

"Well, look at who's looking down at who. How the roles have changed." Davis said too happily for the situation.

"Oh shut up." Ken snapped at him.

"So Cody, how long did it take you to come up with that plausible excuse for Sora." TK said as he tried to hold a struggling Yolei.

"After I picked out my Kendo stick? About a hour." Cody answered while he put pressure on Yolei's hands to keep her from punching him. Everyone else stared at Cody in amusement.

"Well, it's just good that you're here." Kari smiled even though Ken was trying to kick her.

"Yeah. But I can't believe it took you that long to come up with an excuse. Especially when you have the Emperor of excuses here in you're group." Davis said, indicating himself. Everyone just shook their head.

*Out of the protection of Ankylomon*

As soon as Izzy came into the open, Vexilmon ceased attacks.

Surrendering already? He asked in fake surprise.

"Not likely. You think just because you're in this synthetic dimension that you can win. Well think again. Tentomon, you can do it." Izzy said in defiance.

"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon."

Kabuterimon hovered above his partner, ready to fight. Vexilmon simply crossed his arms and if he eyebrows, he would have raised them.

Haven't we already gone through this before? You must have a very bad short term memory. Vexilmon said. It stupefies me to why you bother to fight. It's not like you'll ever win.

"Yeah that's right. We can't beat you in the forms our digimon have now. But I've figured out you little secret about this dimension. And it seems you never factored in that maybe _our_ powers are increased in this dimension too. 'Cause, you see, now that we're not in the digital world, thing's are different. Here's an example." Izzy said calmly. All of the sudden Izzy's digivice glowed and Kabuterimon digivolved to the form he hadn't used in four years.

"Kabuterimon digivolve to... Megakabuterimon"

WHAT! That's an ultimate! You can't digivolve to ultimate! Vexilmon said, very shocked at seeing an ultimate digimon in front of him.

"Interesting that you say that, since I'm standing here, real and ready to fight." Megakabuterimon said in his rough voice. "And here's what I think of that attack you threw at me. Electro Shocker."

Electricity crackled through the huge bug's horn and shot at the acid digimon. Even though electricity wasn't as strong of attack as energy beams, the force of the Ultimate beam drove Vexilmon back from Ankylomon.

One ultimate. Oh boy! Don't let it go to you head. I'm still at mega level Vexilmon said sarcastically, getting over his former shock.

"How 'bout we even the odds a little then? Go Biyomon!" Sora yelled at Vexilmon.

"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon."

Sora raised her Digivice in the air.

"Show 'em what you've got." Sora said and her digivice glowed.

Birdramon digivolve to... Garudramon"

With that, Garudramon took her place by Megakabuterimon.

"Nice to see you again, Megakabuterimon." Garudramon said as she hovered next to him.

"Ditto, Garudramon. Is it payback time?"

"There's never been a better time. Wing blade!" Garudramon said, and she shot an arrow of fire at Vexilmon. He embraced the attack and it slammed into him. But it did not hurt him much. Mimi and Joe looked at their digimon.

"Go!" They both said at the same time.

"Palmon digivolve to... Togemon. Togemon digivolve to... Lilymon"

"Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon. Ikkakumon digivolve to... Zudomon."

"Alright!" Joe said.

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

"Flower cannon."

The two attacks were related to beam attacks, so they made Vexilmon back up a bit as they hit.

"Now let's show him the power of a couple of megas." Tai said and Matt nodded in agreement. "Digivolve."

Matt and Tai's digivices glowed for a second, but there wasn't enough power for Agumon or Gabumon to warp digivolve.

"What?! NO, this can't be." Tai said in despair.

"Oh no! Even though they can open the crests, the power boost Tai and Matt got from Angemon and Angewomon is gone. The digimon can't digivolve to mega." Izzy said, realizing what was happening.

"Hey! We can still fight. We just won't have a mega on our side." Joe said. "This digimon is nothing compared to some of the other things we've face. Let's get him!"

I don't think so. Venom Explosion! Vexilmon said and acid shot at the digimon. Kabuterimon, who was probably the biggest digimon there, stopped the acid from coming to his partner.

"You just made another mistake, Vexilmon. For the most part, we can resist your acid attacks since your main power is your mind control." He said

Touché. However, you will never be able to destroy me. For you are just ultimate's. Vexilmon said.

"Then you won't mind us trying. Flower cannon!" Lilymon said.

"Vulcans Hammer"

"Wing blade."

"Electro shocker."

All four shots hit and drove Vexilmon back a little, but he simply laughed in their heads.

"Alright. I'm getting very sick of that laugh." A female voice said.

The digidestined looked and saw that Gatomon must have digivolved unnoticed, because Angewomon was floating above Ankylomon.

"Here's a little something I call Heavens Charm." Angewomon said to Vexilmon and she created a vertical pink beam in front of her. Then her hands, which had been pressed together, flew open and created a sort of pink cross. The cross shot out a large pink beam at Vexilmon, making him yelp in pain.

Ahh! So you must be the glorious Angewomon. The one who destroyed the despised Myotismon. But remember that you are still an ultimate. Vexilmon said. Then, to prove that, he flicked a small amount of potent acid into Angewomon's hair and burned her blond hair. That made her very mad.

"You think just because you're mega that you can do what ever you want? Let me show you the power of our Mega's" Angewomon said. With that she shot her celestial arrow at Tai before he could protest.

"Agumon warp-digivolve to... Wargreymon."

Tai still had a shocked expression on his face as Wargreymon leapt into the air and started to do hand to hand combat with Vexilmon.

You are a fire digimon. Even if you are a mega, only certain attacks can truly hurt me. Vexilmon said as he blocked Wargreymon's punches.

"That's true. Only energy attacks can work. However you're forgetting one thing. Terra Force!" Wargreymon said 

He shot a huge ball of fire at Vexilmon before Vexilmon could shoot with his acid. It slammed him back a good thirty yards. Wargreymon then lost all his power from only having a temporary energy boost from Angewomon.

"Heat is a form of energy." Agumon said, finishing his own sentence. "Now guys!"

"Right." They said and with that they attacked Vexilmon.

Venom explosion. Vexilmon said desperately, but the attack was in vain and the ultimate's attack whacked into him, sending him flying.

"Take that, you blob of mucus!" Tai yelled.

That's IT! I've had enough playing around. I will show you that I am not as easily defeated as the dark masters. Vexilmon yelled in a horrendous rage. He balled his large hand into a tight fist. Let me prove of MY power in this dimension!

With that, Vexilmon lifted both his hands up and cried Venom Explosion. Two huge streams of acid flew from his hands as Vexilmon threw them down. The acid was so acidic that it was sizzling as it went straight for the digidestined

"NO! Gate of Destiny."

A golden portal was created in midair and opened. The acid went into the portal and the digidestined looked up to see MagnaAngemon scowling at Vexilmon.

"You won't win, Vexilmon. I will destroy you like I did Piedmon. Do not underestimate my power." MagnaAngemon said calmly.

I won't, but thanks for the warning. Now if you'll excuse me... Venom Explosion. Vexilmon said and shot at MagnaAngemon. MagnaAngemon tried to block the acid with his sword, but the sword just went through the liquid and the acid hit MagnaAngemon in the face. This made him fall down, stunned and disabled.

"You want to play dirty? Fine! Heavens Cha-AHH!" Angewomon cried. Vexilmon completely covered Angewomon's body with potent acid, also disabling her.

Who's next? Vexilmon said.

"Us." Two voices said from behind Vexilmon. He turned around to face two champion digimon, Ex-Veemon and Stingmon.

You!? You are nothing but a couple of Champions. Vexilmon laughed.

"That's right. We are." Ex-Veemon said in his raspy voice. "But there's one thing that makes us stronger than you."

"You're outnumbered six to one, Vexilmon. An even though we aren't at the same level as you, there's one thing we have that you don't." Stingmon said angrily

Oh really? What's that.

"A team." They both said. "NOW!!!!"

"Flower cannon."

"Vee-laser"

"Electro shocker"

"Vulcan's hammer"

"Wing blade"

"Spiking strike"

The attacks hit, and this time, Vexilmon fell down. Ankylomon got out of the way as Vexilmon crashed down onto the floor. All the older digidestined just stared at the liquefied digimon as Kari and Cody came out from underneath Ankylomon. Davis and TK were right behind them, half dragging , half carrying Ken and Yolei.

So... You've defeated... me. Vexilmon wheezed. He started to disintegrate like the way the digidestined had during the battle with Apocalamon. It does... not matter. For another... will take my... place. Darkness... will prevail.

"No. No one can be as evil as you." Ken said, still being controlled by the dying digimon. "And there is no other. You are the last of the dark master's. You should know that."

Vexilmon let out a gasping laugh in the digidestined's heads.

And you think... that that thing in your brain... was place there... by accident? When _he_ comes... there will be... no victory for you.

"Who's that?" TK demanded.

He is... even stronger... than I. You... will not... win.

"What's his name? Who's been controlling me this whole time?" Ken exclaimed.

The one who... thrives off of... misery and darkness. His... name... is-

Vexilmon exploded into dust and disappeared.

Author's notes: What a hard chapter to write! Sorry this took so long. This isn't the last chapter, so bear with me. Please review.


	15. Summing it up

Chapter 15

The digidestined just stood in awe.

"No! How dare you die on me, you stupid digimon!" Ken yelled at nothing. "Who did this? Who's been controlling me? Tell me."

Ken was about to say more, but the control that Vexilmon had had on him let up and his legs buckled under him. Luckily, Davis still had a firm grip on him

"Whoa. I've got you." Davis assured Ken as his arms, which had been wrapped around the Kaiser's arms and chest, kept Ken from fallen head first on the floor. Yolei suddenly shook her head and blinked multiple times as she looked at her restrainer.

"T-TK?" Yolei said before fainting.

"Hey, I've got a question. What ever happened to Hawkmon." Kari asked, watching TK lift Yolei up. "He just seemed to disappear."

"I'll find him." Lilymon said and zipped off.

"So... I guess this means we won." Davis said. Ken shook off Davis's grip and tried to stand up, but the side effects of Vexilmon's control made him unable to, so Stingmon scooped his partner up in his hand.

"Yeah, that's right! We've got to celebrate." Tai said happily and with that he grabbed Sora's hand and twirled her around. Then he attempted to dance with her.

"No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong." Matt said playfully. "This is how you do a victory dance."

"I can't believe we did it." Ken said from Stingmon's arms as he watched Matt shove Tai out of the way and start doing some weird version of the Tango with Sora. Sora was giving him a very annoyed look.

"Well, just because you never win doesn't mean we can't, oh great Kaiser." TK joked as he handed Yolei to Ex-Veemon to carry. "Admit it, you enjoyed working with us."

Ken looked down and gave TK as skeptical look. He opened his mouth to give a witty comeback, but Lilymon buzzed back with Hawkmon, bound by rope.

"Found him tied and gagged about half a mile from here. Vexilmon definitely did not want him to interfere." Lilymon said as she landed. The celebration came an abrupt stop. Tai patted his pockets until he found what he was looking for and pulled out a pocketknife.

"Is Yolei all right?" Hawkmon said as soon as the gag was off.

"She's going to be just fine. However, I'm not if we don't get out of here soon. This place gives me the creeps." Joe said. "Umm... Just how are we going to get out of here?"

"Good question. The way we went through was a one way entrance. So the answer to that question is I don't know." Izzy said sheepishly.

"There's got to be a way out! We can't be stuck here." Cody said.

"There you are Hawkmon. All done." Tai said as the last of the rope was cut away.

"Thank you." Hawkmon said, stretching.

Suddenly the was a rumble and ground started to shake and crack.

"What's happening?" Mimi yelled.

"Vexilmon probably created this dimension. Without him, the realm is becoming unstable. It's collapsing." Ken said, quickly coming up with a theory.

"Look there!" Davis said, pointing. What he was pointing at was a small hole in the air.

"Stingmon, widen that hole." Ken commanded. Stingmon took out one of his stingers and jammed it into the hole and created a doorway. The larger digimon digivolved while the others who could fit ran out with their partners. As soon as they were out, the ultimate digimon dedigivolved, unable to maintain their forms and Ken's clothes returned to being Davis's old gym clothes. The only digivolved digimon there were Stingmon and Ex-Veemon.

"Aww. It sucks that we can't keep our ultimate forms in the digital world." Patamon complained, realizing where they were.

"What are you complaining about? At least you have armor digivolutions. We've only got champion forms, and we usually can't access them." Biyomon said.

"Oh, stop bickering. I'm too tired for this." TK said. He looked at his D-terminal. "Wow. We're almost eight miles from the nearest television."

"Great. Let's get moving." Matt said flatly. "Now that Vexilmon is gone, we shouldn't have anymore trouble."

"Don't count on it. I swear, we wear neon signs that say 'We're digidestined, come kill us.'" Davis said skeptically. Everyone laughed.

With that they started walking. The energy from the victory crackled in the air. It lasted for a few minutes. Then a question formed in Davis's mind and he looked at Tai, who was walking next to him.

"So... what are we going to do with Ken?"

The question made Tai stiffen and he almost walked into a tree. He hadn't even thought of what they were going to do with their worst enemy! Granted, Ken had saved their lives, but wasn't he still their enemy?

"I have no idea." Tai stated. He looked over to see if the Kaiser could hear the conversation, but it looked like Ken was asleep

"Well, I was thinking, maybe Ken should join our group. I mean, we do work well together. And with what the miniature version of Ken said, he's given some of his most valued secrets about the base and spirals to us." Davis said hopefully.

"Maybe... but I don't trust him. And I'm sure that everyone else will agree with me. I still think that the only reason he fought with us is because he had to." Tai said

"Or he'd be killed. Yeah, I know. That's what Ken said to. He said he was in a trapped position, but I still think he fought by choice and we should trust him."

"You know," Matt joined in the conversation. "I would usually give a person the benefit of the doubt and give the person a chance. But I have to agree with Tai on this one. In my mind, he hasn't earned our trust."

Davis seemed disappointed.

"You know what I think?" Ken said, making all three of the digidestined jump out of their skins. "I think you should stop talking about me behind my back. It's getting very annoying."

All three of the conversers looked at the subject of their discussion. Ken's eyes were closed and he was in a relaxed position. He turned his head and opened his eyes too look down at his former enemies from Stingmon's arms. Ken raised an eyebrow at them.

"You were awake!?" Tai said, staring is utter shock at his adversary.

"No, I was meditating. But you people talk louder than a bunch of Monochromon and I already have a headache. So shut up." Ken said angrily. He went back into his resting position and closed his eyes. The three boys looked at each other and shrugged. They went back to walking in silence when a soft groan came from Ex-Veemon's arms. Yolei sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Oh man, I've got a major headache." Yolei said, stretching her arms. She looked at her friends, who were staring at her. "What's going on? Last thing I remember was being in that creepy dimension." Yolei looked around. "We're back in the digital world? Did I miss something?"

"You could say that." Kari said. "You don't remember anything?"

Yolei shook her head.

"No. What did I do? Was it really bad?" Yolei said nervously.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Vexilmon takes control of you, you try to beat us to a bloody pile of mucus, we hold you down, and I save the day. Same old, same old." Davis joked.

"You forgot to mention the part where she kissed me." Ken said, raising an eyebrow. Davis stiffened and glared daggers at Ken. Ken just smirked.

"I... kissed... Ken?" Yolei said. Everyone nodded. "EWWW!"

"Oh come now. Half the girls in Tamachi would break their arm to do what you did. Besides, you did have a crush on me." Ken said slyly. Yolei, in response, grabbed a few cherries from a low laying tree and pelted them at Davis.

"How dare you tell him about my fantasies." Yolei said angrily.

"Well, I guess that means our digidestined of love and sincerity is back." Matt said with a laugh. Davis was grinning like a Cheshire cat and trying to shield himself from the incoming fruit but failing miserably. Just then, there was a rustling from the trees above and a large digimon dropped. It stood on two legs and was covered in black fire.

"What! I thought Vexilmon's minions were freed after his deletion." TK said.

"I don't know who Vexilmon is, but I have orders and-" The digimon said.

"Darklizamon! Stop." Ken said, sitting up and glared intensely at the digimon. Darklizamon instantly dropped to one knee and bowed.

"Master. I did not realize you were with these... uh, digidestined fools." Darklizamon said respectively.

"This is one of YOURS!" Joe said, flabbergasted.

"Not exactly." Stingmon answered as Ken dropped from his hand. Ken walked over and stood in front of the group he had been with for the last three days. Darklizamon stood up and towered above the young Kaiser

"Sir, what are you doing with these pests. Aren't they your enemies?" Darklizamon said, indicating the digidestined.

"I'm not in the mood to discuss it." Ken said smoothly.

"Shall I dispose of them?" The digimon said, the fire on its body quivered in anticipation. This time, Ken was at a loss for words.

_"Oh great. Just great. Ken knows we're not strong enough for our digimon to digivolve. He's going to attack us while he has the chance." _Tai thought desperately.

_"Don't do this Ken"_ Davis thought. _"Prove everyone wrong."_

Ken opened his mouth to answer, but Darklizamon is a very impatient digimon and he shot his attack, ignoring the Kaiser.

"Dredge Fire!" Darklizamon said and shot straight at the nearest person next to Ken, which happened to be Sora. Ken instantly snapped his fingers and Stingmon acted on it, blocking the fire from reaching the digidestined of love. Darklizamon narrowed his eyes.

"You've gone traitorous on us, sir." Darklizamon accused.

"A lot's happened in the few days I've been gone, Darklizamon" Ken said in almost a whisper. "Things that I don't understand, and that I have to sort out. And believe me, your presence is not helping."

"Traitors must be destroyed. Especially allies." Darklizamon growled. Then he jumped at Ken. But Stingmon was quicker and pierced Darklizamon with his spiking strike. Darklizamon disappeared in front of Ken.

"Who the hell was THAT!" Matt said, enraged. Ken didn't answer right away, so Stingmon answered for him.

"Do you really think that we could have started the empire on our own? That was Darklizamon. He was one of our top allies." Stingmon said.

"You had allies?" Kari asked, unsure of what to think.

"Yeah." Ken said, turning around. "But it doesn't matter." Ken paused. "Look, I don't need to accompany you on walk back to the real world. I don't understand what's going on or what Vexilmon meant. And I surely don't know what that thing in the back of my head is. I'm going so don't follow me. It's annoying."

With that he walked away. He snapped his fingers again and like a trained dog, Stingmon dedigivolved and followed. Everyone else stared at him as he walked away.

"Well now... that was interesting." Tai broke the silence.

"Guys. He just saved our lives! I think he deserves our trust by now!" Davis said

"He said not to follow. Let him go." Izzy said. Davis looked thoroughly confused and disappointed.

"Tai? Remember what happened to me when I left." Matt said.

"Yeah. But you didn't try to destroy us in the beginning. Only after." Tai protested. Matt raised an eyebrow.

"Mm hm." Matt said. Tai seemed to get the message.

"Fine. I'll talk to him. But if I get blasted by either Tyrannomon or Airdramon slaves, someone is going to suffer." Tai said as he went after his former enemy. It wasn't long before Tai was able to catch up with the Kaiser.

"Ken!" Tai called. "Wait."

"Kamiya, what in the digiworld are you doing. I told you not to follow me." Ken said angrily.

"I know, I know. But I deserve to be heard out." Tai sighed, jamming his hands into his pockets

"I'm listening."

"I think you should join us." Tai said quickly. Ken was taken aback by the sudden spurt of friendship.

"What!" Ken practically sputtered.

"Look, I'll be brutally honest with you. I don't like you, and I'm sure you don't like me. But after what has happened, I can't go back to fighting you. You've saved our lives more than once and I don't have the heart to battle someone whom I'm indebted to. Not to mention that the others feel the same way. Now I know this hard for you to accept, but you're one of the digidestined. And whatever Vexilmon meant by the stronger being of darkness, I sure don't want to face it and you. So join us." Tai stated.

"You really mean that, don't you?" Ken inquired.

"Yeah. And whoever this evil is, we'll figure out a way to defeat him." Tai said. "Being in your mind was quite an experience, you know. I think we have more in common than you can imagine. What do you say?"

Ken looked at Tai's hand as he held it out.

"You know, considering how you tried beat me into the next dimension after I'd just saved your life the first time, you sure change your attitude quickly." Ken said

"I think impulsive would be the better word. Of course, it's not as bad as it was when I was your age."

Ken gave one of his half smiles.

"You peculiar, Kamiya." Ken said with a slight laugh. With that he walked toward the direction of the digidestined. Tai looked in shock and Ken stopped. "Well? You digidestined are very strange. I would assume that you would be celebrating the end of a war, but instead you stand there catching flies. I don't have any desire to be controlled by anyone or anything. And obviously, being the digimon Kaiser isn't helping. Until I figure out what's going on, I'm done with this madness."

Tai smiled and walked toward his former adversary. He was still smiling even as Davis said the two words that would bring them home: "Digi-port open." There was a brief flash and almost everyone landed in one big tangled pile.

"Ow. Do we have to go through the Digi-port this way every time?" Yolei complained.

"You people ought to work on your balance. It might help." Ken said. Everyone looked up to see Ken standing on the ground, holding Minomon and smirking at them.

"How'd you get untangled so quickly?" Sora said.

"I never got tangled. I've gone through the port so many times that I learned how to land on my feet. Unlike you, who seem to prefer the human pretzel way of coming through the portal."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Yolei said sarcastically. She was about to say another comeback, but the Digi-port opened and out came Davis, crushing everyone who was tangled.

"Sorry. I just transported Mimi back to New York. She said you should see her some time. Plus she gave me her cell phone so that you can call Mr. Ishida." Davis explained. Matt groaned when he heard his fathers' name.

"Oh man. He's going to kill me when he finds out that he went twenty miles out of the city just to end up picking us up at Odiba elementary." Matt said, trying to pick himself up.

"Actually, I'm just glad to be home." Izzy commented. The all twisted out of their positions and stood up.

"Right." Tai said. Davis handed him the cell phone. "I guess I'll call your dad, Matt. Hey Ken, do you want to call..." Tai looked up, but Ken was nowhere in sight. "home. Sheesh, he left pretty quickly. Maybe we should go after him."

"Nah, he'll show up when he wants to." Matt said. They all nodded in understanding. Then Davis realized something.

"Hey, he's got my gym clothes!"

*A few day's later*

"The young Tamachi genius, Ken Ichijouji, mysteriously reappeared after being gone for over two month's. How he was able to get into his house, since it was locked and the window unreachable, is unconfirmed. And the short term amnesia in which the boy seems to be unable to remember anything from the past couple of months, is not help the police." The reporter said from the TV. "However, his parents are glad he's home and are strictly forbidding interrogation until further notice. Back to you, Sara."

TK shut off the television that was programmed onto the computer. He sighed, then looked at Davis, Kari, Yolei and Cody, the only ones in the computer lab with him. It had been only a few day's since the battles with Vexilmon and now it was time to start taking down spires. However, with the warning they had gotten from Vexilmon, none of the digidestined were to enthusiastic about going to the digital world.

"Well, at least we have the digimon Kaiser off our backs." TK finally said. Kari gave a short laugh.

"Yeah. Except now we have to worry about an even larger enemy." Kari said.

Oh, come on. Don't be such a downer." Davis said.

"How can you be so happy?" Yolei said. "It like you're always on a sugar high!"

"Hey, I wrote the book on how to be happy. And in my professional opinion, I think you should lighten up." Davis said, practically bubbling.

"Professional opinion!? Why you little-" Yolei started to say but the door suddenly slid open.

"Look's like the digidestined have a lot of spare time now that their enemy is gone." The person standing in the door said.

"Ken!"

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop off an item. Here you go." Ken said and dropped a plastic bag into Davis's arms.

"You brought back my gym clothes. Thanks."

"Well, see you." Ken said and started to walk away.

"Wait Ken. Why don't you come with us to the digital world? It would be nice to have an extra hand in knocking down the spires." Davis said. Ken turned on his heel. "Besides, we're having a free trial membership this week."

"Trial membership, huh." Ken said, a small smile forming on his usually serious face. "Now how could I pass up a chance like that?"

"Cool! Let's go! Digi-port open" Davis cried.

Once in the digital world, Yolei decided to have a private conversation with her former enemy.

"So how have you been? Your parents seemed to like that you're home." Yolei said.

"Yeah, though my mother wasn't too happy about the fact that I was bleeding in more than one spot, but she'll live."

Yolei laughed. But then she seemed a bit worried about something.

"I can't believe that there's a piece of Vexilmon in my brain. If it's activated again, I could kill you." Yolei said darkly.

"Yeah. But Vexilmon's gone. I wouldn't worry about it." Ken reassured.

"Not worry? What about you? You've got some weird gadget in your brain too. Aren't you scared or confused?"

"A little. But what can I do? I talked to Izumi and we believe, based on the information we have, that it's some type of device that fed off of my emotions and probably led me to becoming the Kaiser. As far as we can tell, it deactivated when Vexilmon tried to make me his slave. And, like your situation, there's nothing we can do about it. You know how TK and Kari say that a digidestined carries a piece of the digital world with them, always. Well, I guess we will really have a piece of the digital world." Ken said, joking on the last part. Yolei laughed.

"You know what, Ichijouji. You're alright." Yolei said kindly. "Welcome to the team."

The End

Authors note: Well, what did you think? I may do a sequel, but I'd have to think of a way to bring Vexilmon back from the dead. Please review and thank you for reading.


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